Too busy to blog?

In the little things mean a lot department: Nancy Mosley, cataloger extraordinaire, and currently making considerable leeway into the bulk of uncataloged material at MMCD, has also made a significant contribution to the Library of Congress. Yes, that is correct: the Library of Congress.
Recently, she wrote them an email.
"I am a cataloger at The Mint Museums in Charlotte, North Carolina,and we have a large concentration in decorative arts and crafts. This includes glass. In cataloging books on this topic, I have found an inconsistency in the use of the terms "Art glass" and "Glass art" in the literature, and unfortunately in the LC Catalog. I have not found any scope notes on these two topics, either. In the Classification Web, the LC Class number associated with "Art glass" implies that it is a specific type of glass, and for "Glass art" it is a large range of numbers. I am using these implied definitions in choosing which subject heading to use, but would appreciate some more official guidance. Can you help?Sincerely,Nancy Mosley"

To which they responded:
We will add scope notes to these headings to clarify usage. The definition proposed for Art glass is: works on varieties of decorative colored glass produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The definition proposed for Glass art is: works on art that is created using glass. Milicent Wewerka, Cataloging Policy and Support Office, Library of Congress

As Nancy noted in her email to me telling me of this, "It pays to be a pest. The Library of Congress should have done this ages ago." But they didn't and YOU Nancy are the one that got them to do it. For those of you unfamiliar with the responsiveness of bureaucracy, this is HUGE!!
Congratulations Nancy!!

Back in the grant trenches department: The retrospective conversion is officially done. This means all the card catalog and notebook records have been converted to digital form and can go into the library software. Hopefully, that will take place over the next couple of days. We are looking to show you all the catalog - staff only! - after the first of the year. Can you believe it? I'm not quite sure I do.

In with the new department: Welcome Joe! He's made the rounds and I think everyone has had a chance to meet Joe Eshleman, the new library assistant. If we've missed anyone, please come by and say hi! He is here on Tues., Wed., and Thurs. Although he is kind of new to the library field, he is an old hand at the museum/non-profit world having worked at Discovery Place for 12 years. Welcome Joe!

This is not goodbye department: Shawn's last day is Friday, November 2 BUT she will be back - she promised! - on a volunteer basis to help with barcoding all these dang books! She is already (and has been) working full-time at Heroes, so the last month she has been doing double-duty big time. Thanks for everything Shawn! And see you soon!

Road trip department: SOFA chicago opens today and a little piece of MMCD is there too courtesy of the Founder's Circle along with intrepid staff. Wouldn't it be cool if one of them could blog and share impressions, images of the show, reactions to our exhibit booth? Next best thing, SOFA's blog: http://sofaexpo.com/loop/

And of course the last but not least department: Since it is always fun to see how others see us, let's look! Here's a search on Flickr - the photo sharing site - about US! Enjoy :)
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mint+museum+-toys+-champoy+-sakura&m=text

What the heck is going on with the grant and other library news

Let's see . . . since the last post, the contracts for the library software and for the retrospective conversion have been signed; we've received the library server and other hardware; a software company representative has been on site for two days to set up implementation parameters; getting the job description posted for the grant-funded library position; and next week, another software person will be here to install the server! We are rolling! Please excuse the glazed look in my eyes.

File under new experiences: We tried but did not get a book we bid on at a Sotheby's auction in London. Many thanks to the Delhom Service League, especially Betty Holland and Caroline Gray, for their incredible support in our mutual attempt to get this specific title. Much was learned in the process!

New titles keep coming! Here are a few which may be of interest:

• Georgia O'Keeffe: Circling Around Abstraction - Jonathan's book! And the first exhibition to focus on her circular abstract forms and their significance in American art.


• By Hand: the Use of Craft in Contemporary Art - "From Kiki Smith's lovingly etched birds to dynamo-ville's one-of-a-kind puppets to Barb Hunt's knitted land mines to Evil Twin's hand-bound publications, today's art revels in the care and consideration of craft." What do you think?


• A Life on Paper: the Drawings and Lithographs of JohnThomas Biggers - May well be the essential work on this artist. The author worked with Biggers over the last thirteen years of his life and later with his widow. Many of the works depicted - and selected by Biggers before his death - have never before been published for a general audience.


• In the Hands of African American Collectors: the Personal Treasures of Bernard & Shirley Kinsey - The catalog for the exhibition of this significant collection of documents and works of art from a couple with a remarkable collective vision.


• Frederic Church, Winslow Homer and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape - A gorgeous celebration of American art in an exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt.


• The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation - A brand new publication, rich in detail, about the iconic feminist art work which finally has a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. Brilliant and enduring.
  

You may have noticed all the bins and boxes in the library over the last month. These are all from a single donation - from local appraiser Laurie Triplette who is moving to Mississippi. Her donation included her own collection of artist files, particularly her files on North Carolina artists. The donation is a huge addition to the library collection. Laurie, thank you again and you will be missed. And a shout-out to Kurt and William for being the muscle for the pickup and to Leah for helping when we got back here. Thank you all!

Last but not least dept.: Look out for a new 3-part series on PBS called Craft in America. It's a series, an exhibition and a book! Check out the website and view the streaming video preview featuring Sam Maloof at www.craftinamerica.org. Check local listings for the series which is to start in May.

Welcome interns! The Library of The Mint Museums is pleased to host two interns this semester. Candace Sailstad, an English major from UNC-Charlotte, will be helping to create bibliographies and wiki pages for exhibitions among other duties. Jennifer France, a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program at the University of South Carolina, will be working in the Delhom Library helping to organize the massive amount of brochures and pamphlets on ceramics. Welcome to you both!

One of the sayings in my family is "Weavers wobble but they don't fall down." And while not necessarily or always true, it does describe a basic steadiness in the clan whatever wobble comes our way. Library shelves on the other hand . . . (wasn't that just a brilliant segue?) if wobbly, may fall down. And ours are. Wobbly, I mean. So City of Charlotte to the rescue! Within the next month we'll be moving some books around in both the Jones and Delhom libraries to facilitate getting the library shelving stabilized. Just a few wall clips and some bracing across the top should do it! And we shall be ever grateful.

New this week in the library:

Sheila Hicks: Weaving As Metaphor - Published to accompany the first exhibition of a contemporary artist organized by the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, this gorgeous book focuses on the weavings Hicks has done throughout her career with essays by Arthur C. Danto and Joan Simon. Special note: Sheila Hicks was kind enough to send this to us herself. A reminder too that her Soft Stones are on exhibit in the Rankin gallery.

A couple of titles about nuts and bolts museum stuff
2006 Museum Financial Information, the results of the AAM survey with information from over 800 museums in the United States. An excellent benchmarking tool.
And Museum Strategy and Marketing: Designing Missions, Building Audiences, Generating Revenue and Resources touted as the "first and only guide to strategic planning and marketing for museums." Comprehensive and well-reviewed.

Sergei Isupov Sculpture 1996-2006 - Ferrin Gallery's catalog of the artist's fantastical porcelain sculptures. (OK, on your toes pop culture reference: Does Guillermo Del Toro own any of his work? If not, he should!)

Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudi, Miro, Dali: Hefty in size and content, the catalogue for the exhibition organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And it's back . . . Treasures from the Stacks Dept.!


If you've read the text panel for the lovely Mowbray painting Rose Harvest (1887) hanging in the Spangler gallery, you know that this painting was exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago - the legendary "White City." Did you know the Library has a copy of the Official Catalogue of Exhibits - Fine Arts? Did you know it was the largest exhibition of American art in the United States? View a little piece of American art history. Personal favorite part: In the back are blank pages for the fair-goer to write notes, comments, etc. and in the library copy is penciled " Monday Ferris Wheel." For more information about the 1893 Columbian Exposition, see http://members.cox.net/academia/cassatt8.html.