by Ann Lindell, annlind@mail.uflib.ufl.edu
Branch Library Environment And Clientele
The Architecture and Fine Arts Library
(AFA) at the University of Florida is one of several branch libraries under
the administration of the University Libraries. We are fortunate
to be located within the University's Fine Arts Complex, so our primary
clientele, students and faculty from the Colleges of Fine Arts and Architecture,
have easy access to our services and collections. While we serve
the information needs of the University as a whole, the majority of our
patrons are regular library users, immersed in the research and study of
art, architecture, and building. Faculty rely heavily on the reserve
reading services, so their students are often familiar with the library
before receiving formal library instruction.
Using The Library Web Site As An Instruction Tool
Staff at all University of Florida libraries and collections are actively developing Web sites. Links are provided to all of these specialized sites from a main library home page. At the AFA Library, we have developed our Web site http://afalib.uflib.ufl.edu/afa to perform a variety of functions. It serves as an introduction to our staff, services and collections; provides finding aids for special format materials (video, student projects); links to specialized bibliographies; serves as a guide to information about arts and building available on the World Wide Web; and provides a focused access point to arts-related resources available through the University Libraries (library catalog, periodical databases, electronic journals, guides to print materials, and other resources).
The AFA Library Web site serves as a useful
tool to organize library instruction. Most instruction sessions are
held in an electronic classroom where students are able to work hands-on
with resources, as examples are projected from the instructor's workstation
for the class to see. Use of the Web site provides a common touchstone
for the many diverse resources presented. In addition, it facilitates
a highly visual presentation, which is well received by students in art
and design. At the end of the presentation, students
leave knowing that they can have access to many resources they will need,
including the library catalog, through this one springboard.
Content: How To Find Visual Information And More
AFA Librarians teach students traditional library skills including the interpretation of catalog records and strategies for finding background information, books, and periodical literature. Depending on the expertise level of the participants, database searching skills are introduced and/or refined.
Because the work of these students is primarily
visual, an important area of emphasis in library instruction sessions is
image retrieval. In analyzing bibliographic records, students are
taught to pay particular attention to the physical description and to contents
notes. These elements will provide clues to what type of visual information
may be found in a particular book or article (illustrations, photographs,
drawings, portraits, charts, maps, plans). Participants are also
introduced to key subject phrases to use in searching: "pictorial works,"
"designs and plans," "(subject) in art," etc. Other tools for
finding images are discussed, including illustration and reproduction indexes,
visual dictionaries, and image sites on the World Wide Web.
The Reach-Every-Student Model
The University of Florida Libraries employ
a variety of approaches in an effort to reach most undergraduate students
with formal library instruction. To a large extent, this is accomplished
through instruction sessions aimed at the first-year English composition
classes, with additional offerings of general library orientation sessions
and Internet training for the general university population. While branch
librarians and other subject specialists participate in these programs,
to a large extent they concentrate their instructional efforts in course-related,
subject-specific sessions.
At the AFA Library, we have extended the
"reach-every-student" model to our own clientele. All art majors
(both studio and art history) enroll in Workshop for Art Research and Practice
(W.A.R.P.), a combined lecture/studio course emphasizing experiential learning,
collaboration, and experimentation. The architecture program begins
similarly with Design I, a course which combines beginning studio skills
with an understanding of architectural history. By targeting these
two courses, we are able to reach all core-level art and architecture students.
Reaching Upper-Level Students
Library instruction for upper level studios can be illustrated by describing a recent session offered to Senior Graphic Design, a studio course with significant emphasis on design history. In this case, the librarian brought the "library" to the studio, a networked classroom where every student has his or her own computer for design and research. These students were working on a project in which they were required to research varying perspectives (historical, cultural, visual) relating to an "artifact" of their own choosing. This provided an excellent opportunity for the librarian to introduce multi-disciplinary resources available online, and to help refine the students' database searching skills. General resources (both print and electronic) were discussed in addition to addressing the current assignment.
It is interesting to note that the two
pieces of information that seemed to spark the most interest in the young
designers were (1) the call number range for typography, and (2) the existence
of visual dictionaries. Perhaps this illustrates that for the visual
artist, "informed" browsing can often be the most successful search strategy.
Ann Lindell is Assistant Librarian at the Architecture and Fine Arts Library, University of Florida.
LIRT News, March 1998. Volume
20, number 3.
To report problems, please
contact the LIRT News Production editor at
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