Co-Sponsors: Museum Library and Academic Library Divisions
Moderator: Cecilia H. Chin, National Museum of American Art/National Portrait Gallery
Contributors:
Theresa Boccia
Theresa Boccia opened the session by asking whether costly and labor-intensive book exchange programs are worth supporting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Watson Library has decided the answer is no, at least on the domestic front. Boccia provided a brief history of museum exchange programs which began many years ago as "gentlemanly agreements" where one did not have to dirty one's hands with money. During this time larger libraries took on the role of benevolently sharing their catalogues with smaller libraries which did not have the funds to purchase them. Throughout the cold war, exchange programs were often the only way of obtaining catalogues from behind the Iron Curtain.
In the 90's Boccia believes it is now time to address the question "are we all equal?" She outlined a number of disadvantages of exchange programs. They often require a great deal of time and effort to determine whether a particular catalogue will be sent on exchange. Many museums batch catalogues and ship them once or twice a year. If a catalogue is needed immediately it is necessary to either order it, and risk duplication, or call the museum to see if will come on exchange. It is also very expensive for museums to support exchange programs. The Watson Library, like many other libraries, must purchase exchange copies from museum shops.
Boccia explained that the Watson Library began their exchange program revisions two years ago by evaluating each partner on a case-by-case basis, directing titles to fit each institution's scope. After further study, the Watson Library decided earlier this year that the domestic exchange program was not an efficient acquistions tool, and limited its domestic exchange program to The Metropolitan Museum's Bulletin. They have, however, increased access to their holdings through their web site, and have increased their interlibrary loans. The Library has retained its international exchange program and is continuing to support small museum libraries outside the United States.
Susan Craig
Craig began with the results of the academic library/museum section of a recent survey on exchange programs. The complete results of the survey, which was conducted by Cecilia Chin in early 1997, will be published soon.
This was followed by some practical advice on monitoring exchange programs such as keeping aware of the direct costs of the program, the amount of staff time required, and the cost of catalogues and postage. If these costs are higher than the value of catalogues received there are a number of things that can be done. These include reducing the number of exchange partners, using a tiered system, such as sending major exchange partners everything and minor partners only serials, or a mixture of the above. Costs can also be saved by being more selective about what is sent to specific museums by keeping within their collecting profile. Exchange programs can also be eliminated altogether.
Craig highlighted some on the disadvantages of exchange programs. Shipments are not always sent out in a timely manner making it difficult to predict what to expect and when it will arrive. The size of a catalogue, and the number of copies distributed by museums are often dictated by the size of grants received, co-publishing arrangements, staffing patterns in museums, and budgets that vary from year to year. The advantages are that many institutions are very generous in sharing their publications and museums are able to have catalogues they would otherwise not be able to purchase. Museums often receive undocumented supplementary materials which greatly enrich their collections. The survey results endorse the fact that in spite of all the disadvantages exchange programs are still worthwhile.
Karen McKenzie
Karen McKenzie began her presentation by outlining many of the changes that have taken place since the original survey was undertaken in the early 1980's. She pointed out that there have always been those who believe that exchange programs are very valuable, and others who find them irrelevant.
McKenzie stated that exchange program partners have never been equal partners. Ever since they began there has always been two distinct groups. A small group at the top with international reputations, or "A list", which publish large scholarly exhibition catalogues that everyone wants. There is also a "B list" of museums which are regionally or community based. These museums produce smaller catalogues which often feature local artists that are not usually of interest to the A list museums.
New technologies have brought immense change to museums and libraries, and will impact on the rationale for publication exchanges. In the early, "gentlemanly agreement" days of exchange programs, museums felt an obligation to share with sister institutions; as well, publications exchange was a practical way for museums to disseminate information about their art obligation to share with sister institutions; as well, publications exchange was a practical way for museums to disseminate information about their art collections and exhibitions to institutions with a need for it. Today, large museums have automated collections management systems and Web sites to give instant data access to their art collections; paper is no longer the sole publishing vehicle for distributing museum information. Concurrently in the library field, technology has fostered a shift away from collection building to information access and shared collections, reducing the need to acquire large quantities of exhibition catalogues through the mechanism of exchange. A complicating factor in the nineties has been the wide-spread economic downturn, forcing museums to find new revenue sources in their services and programming; under the circumstances, it may be difficult for the museum library to justify free exchange distribution of catalogues. Is there a future for exchange programs? McKenzie believes that more and more of the larger museums will cut back on their exchanges. However, for the smaller institutions, exchanges remain an important means of collection development. Can technology assist with exchange programs? McKenzie believes that technology will play a role in the future, but at the moment is not aware of any specific examples.
Katja Apih
The Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia has developed a national and international exchange program which is essential for getting publications from abroad. The catalogues they receive are very important for the students, curators, and art critics who use the museum library. Apih stated that exchange programs are also an excellent way for museums to make themselves known abroad. Her museum publishes multi-lingual catalogues and sends one third of them to exchange partners outside of Europe.
Nancy Stevens
As an editor at the Amon Carter Museum, Nancy Stevens was able to provide a publisher's view of museum exchange programs. In a brief history of museum publishing she described the 1980's as the "good old days" when generous grants enabled museums to publish many high quality catalogues. In the 1990's, high publication costs have meant cutbacks on the number and size of catalogues they publish for they are barely able to recover costs. The Amon Carter usually publishes two to seven catalogues a year and they are now trying to produce catalogues that are more like books, i.e., publications that will have value after an exhibition ends. They are also attempting to publish books that fill a genuine need and tap into a specific market. The Library, which administers the museum's exchange program, purchases the catalogues at cost for the one hundred partners in the program.
The formal presentations ended with a lively discussion on the
following topics:
problems involved when catalogues are co-published, what to do
when exchange publications are received which are duplicates or
won't fit into the collection (book dealers will often take them for credit; and some are sent to book sales) and a suggestion was made to have an exhibition catalogues collection (book dealers will often take them for credit; and some are sent to book sales) and a suggestion was made to have an exhibition catalogues duplicates exchange list on the ARLIS list. Several speakers stressed the need for better communication on the list about future exchange shipments.
Lynne Woodruff
Art Library
University of Maryland, College Park
lw64@umailsrv0.umd.edu