and the carrier type? Let’s face

it…I was in over my head, but I

gave it the old college try. I now

know everything there is to know

about DVD description from Jay. I

learned RDA is an ever-evolving

beast of a standard. (Remind me

how is this making things

“better”? Just kidding!) I met some

kind folks with good suggestions

who probably won’t mind if I send

them a frantic email begging for

help. Admittedly, this course was

not exactly what I thought it

would be, but all in all it was a

good experience and I obtained

helpful information to relay to our

paraprofessional cataloging staff.

Detail of Big Conference @

Moscone center Original photo

by CedricSF

The BayNet Grant Committee

kindly awarded me with an ex-

tremely generous $500 Profes-

sional Development Grant which I

was very grateful to receive. I

applied it toward registration fees

for the 2015 American Library

Association Annual Conference in

San Francisco that took place at

the end of June. The grant also

partially covered a preconference

RDA cataloging workshop,

“Cataloging Special Formats for

the Child in All of Us”. This was

my third time attending ALA’s

annual conference and I hadn’t

been since 2011. It was very excit-

ing to have it situated in wonder-

ful nearby San Francisco. The fact

that it coincided with SF’s Pride

Weekend was also pretty exciting

considering Roberta Kaplan was

fortuitously selected as the Open-

ing Keynote Speaker. The morn-

ing of the day Kaplan was sched-

uled to speak, the Supreme Court

affirmed same-sex couples the

right to marry, thus history was in

the making and I got to witness

Kaplan’s victory speech! Here is a

recap of my conference experience.

I spent all of Thursday at a pre-

conference put on by the Associa-

tion for Library Collections &

Technical Services. It was about

cataloging uncommon children’s

items with RDA and MARC21.

The presenters were Julie Renee

Moore and Jay Weitz. I work at

Livermore Public Library as an

electronic resources librarian in

the technical services department.

We are a small staff and do not

have a cataloging librarian. With

the relatively recent arrival of the

new cataloging standard, Resource

Description & Access, (meant to

replace AACR2) I thought it would

be a good idea to try to become

knowledgeable about RDA. Let me

start off by saying that I was the

sole non-cataloging librarian

there. That, in and of itself, was

probably a good indicator that I

had no business being there, but

hey, I was feeling up to a chal-

lenge. Or so I thought. We cov-

ered: an overview of RDA; new

MARC bibliographic fields; vari-

ous 3-D objects (teacher resource

materials) similar to what Julie

catalogs for education specialists;

2-D items; video games; video

recordings. I measured and tried

to describe plastic pizza slices,

board game pieces, bubble gum

collector card packets, animal x-

rays, kits, you name it. There is a

whole section in the RDA docu-

mentation about 3-D…is it realia,

a toy, or a model, etc.? What are

the content type, the media type,

ALA Annual Conference, San Francisco 2015

Combing Archives to Document Queer San Francisco Art Institute

Jeff: Last Fall I was asked by

Charles Demarais, the Presi-

dent of the San Francisco Art

Institute to present a talk

about the School’s relationship

with the LGBTQ commu-

nity. I think it was his, and

others’ understanding that the

SFAI had been a safe haven

and fertile ground for LGBTQ

artists during the school’s

140+ year history. Charles

wanted me to give evidence of

this thesis in a presentation to

SFAI Alumni, which was to

take place in November

2014. It is understandable

how administrative folk here

on campus—the President, the

fundraisers, the public rela-

tions people and others—had

gotten this idea of the SFAI as

refuge as I had always made

sure when the topic came up

to rattle off names of well-

known and terrific LGBTQ

artists who had attended and

or taught at the school. This

included Jess, Minor White,

Bernice Bing, Jerome Caja,

Annie Leibowitz, etc. But I

am afraid I had promoted the

impression that these artists

as well as many other LGBTQ

artists had thrived here at the

SFAI campus when I am sure

many of them must have

struggled mightily amidst

prejudice and homophobia and

Bay Area Library and Information Network

Summer 2015 Volume 1, Issue 4

BayNet Newsletter

Special points

of interest:

Our Grant Awardee

gives a run-down of ALA

Annual 2015

Ever wondered what

goes into researching an

entire movement? Jim Van

Buskirk and Jeff Gunder-

son explain their process.

The Mix brings cutting

edge tech to San Francisco

Public Library’s teen users

Inside this issue:

ALA Annual

Run-down

2

Queer SF Art

Institute

2

The Mix at

SF Public

Library

4

Combing Archives cont.

history, having helped co-found

the Gay and Lesbian Interests

Round Tables of both California

Library Association and Art

Libraries Society of North Amer-

ica, serving as an editor of the

Bibliography of Gay and Les-

bian Art published in 1994 by

the Gay and Lesbian Caucus of

the College Art Association, and

co-authoring Gay By the Bay: A

History of Queer Culture in the

San Francisco Bay Area

(Chronicle Books, 1996). I main-

tained fond memories of the

place and it would be great fun

to work on this project with Jeff.

Our process, I think we can

safely say, was organic. Jeff

showed me what he had come up

with so far and we began brain-

storming more names. Did so-

and-so identify as queer? Did

such-and-such artist have an

association with SFAI, either as

an instructor, student, or staff

member? We combed through

exhibition catalogs, books, web-

sites, and the archives. We real-

ized that it would be wise to get

as much opinion from current

faculty as possible. Whenever

we mentioned the project to

someone, they became excited

and often offered another poten-

tial name. Julie Blankenship, a

former SFAI student, artist, and

Executive Director of Visual

AID, was a particularly helpful

resource. Realizing that this

needed to be a visual presenta-

tion (SFAI is an art school!), we

searched for images of each

artist as well as a representative

sample of their work. Jeff

scanned images from books and

documents, and Jim contacted

possible participants. Knowing

we could never be comprehen-

sive, we nevertheless tried to

follow up on every suggested

name. Moments of sadness

punctured our enthusiasm as we

realized many of the names had

been lost to AIDS.

No one could quite believe that

this important aspect of both

local queer and institutional

history had not previously been

documented. We also recog-

nized potential pitfalls of the

project. To what extent did we

risk misrepresenting and/or

“outing” individuals? For exam-

ple, Minor White, now cele-

brated as a pioneering “gay”

photographer, was likely not

“out” during his tenure at the

SFAI. Reinforcing the “it’s com-

plicated” phenomenon: Angela

Davis came out as a lesbian in a

1997 interview, but had earlier

married one of her male SFAI

students. We continued to ask

ourselves: were we uncovering

underdocumented material or

just fueling the flames of gossip

under the guise of historical

research?

In some ways the research was a

trip down memory lane. I

tracked down Harry Mulford,

the gay library staffer who had

begun organizing the archives in

the 1970s. He seemed pleased to

hear about the project, though

his health prevented him from

attending our talk. I spoke to my

friend Margaret Cleaver, the

SFAI reference librarian in the

mid-1970s for her personal and

professional reminiscences of

the era. I contacted Matty One-

person and Sharon Tan-

nenbaum, who met at a meeting

of the Gay League and have

been together ever since. We

spoke, e-mailed, and queried

other SFAI alumni, faculty, and

staff which resulted in a hap-

hazard but nevertheless invalu-

able oral history record that

gave us a sense of the range of

attitudes, obstacles, triumphs,

events, and actions witnessed by

LBGTQ folk attached to the

SFAI and Bay Area art commu-

nity.

We enlisted the thoughts and

research assistance of queer-

identified students Anna Garski,

Ryan Darley, and Aaron Kiss-

man. For example, Ryan pa-

tiently scrutinized many issues

of Artweek looking for documen-

tation of a 1980s group exhibi-

tion held at SFAI organized by

then-student John DeFazio. As

we assembled names and im-

ages, Jeff continually updated

the PowerPoint presentation.

Each time we ran through it

another idea would occur to one

of us. We were adding and revis-

ing right up until the evening of

succeeded in spite of obstacles

hurled at them from fellow stu-

dents, faculty and staff. So I

needed to warn these adminis-

trators that the true story might

well include many aspects of

LGBTQ life on campus that

would not show the SFAI in a

flattering light. I also men-

tioned to these staff that having

me do the presentation—

although certainly well-versed

and knowledgeable of SFAI

history—was evidence of the

school’s continued possible dis-

connect as I am not of the

LGBTQ community. My own

confusion with how to approach

this was cleared up in corre-

spondence with Lenore Chinn

who said, “It begs the question:

Where is the first voice?” Where

is the authentic expression from

a community, not just about a

community?” Lenore went on to

write about artists photograph-

ing outside of their communi-

ties, “For some this may not be

particularly significant but it

conjures up ongoing issues of

artistic expression from original

sources. That is, from one’s own

experience and not, as could be

construed, an anthropological or

sociological peep show.” All the

while in mulling over the logis-

tics of this talk, as well as it

content, I wanted to enlist a

more knowledgeable “first per-

son” to do it! I contacted my

friend Jim Van Buskirk…

Jim: My first library job was as

a paraprofessional at the SFAI

library from 1978 to 1981, where

I was active in the newly formed

and short-lived Gay League.

When I finished my MLIS at UC

Berkeley I accepted a profes-

sional position at the SFPL. Jeff

was hired to fill my vacancy and

we immediately became friends

and supportive colleagues. Over

the years Jeff had impressively

maintained and developed the

archives as well as having writ-

ten many important articles, in

addition to the monograph The

Moment of Seeing: Minor White

at the California School of Fine

Arts.

I was intrigued by the prospect

of documenting SFAI’s queer

“Our process,

I think we

can safely

say, was

organic.”

Page 2 BayNet Newsletter

Detail of Marriage Equality Rally,

November 15, 2008, San Francisco

Photo by Frank Farm

view from SFAI by Trever Buket

the event.

We attempted to attract any and

all interested attendees by ask-

ing everyone to advertise the

program. We never really fin-

ished our research, rather the

date of the presentation arrived.

Attending a practice run-

through Jim’s boyfriend, Allen,

immediately identified the re-

cently deceased Arturo Galster

in a 1970s photograph from the

SFAI Archives. We had been

looking at that image for weeks

without recognizing the per-

formance artist, who had be-

come a beloved chameleon of

drag personas. This was defi-

nitely a communal project.

The night of the event, we at-

tempted to alleviate our nerv-

ousness by inviting the audience

to chime in with any comments.

Aaron Kissman provided the

concluding remarks by under-

scoring how important knowing

about queer forbearers was to

contemporary students. They

were incredibly appreciative,

and congratulated us heartily

afterward at a special reception,

where more stories were

shared. They seemed thrilled

that their history was being

documented and disseminated.

Just as this project was a mix of

excavating the archives, oral

history, digging through news-

papers, and prowling through

artists’ files, it was also a true

collaboration with many voices

and we hope many more people

will add to the discussion to

make for a more comprehensive

history. While we recognize

there is much more to unearth

we realized that our program

might appeal to a larger audi-

ence and are delighted to be

presenting it on Wednesday,

June 3 at the San Francisco

Public Library under the aus-

pices of the James C. Hormel

Gay & Lesbian Center.

By Jim Van Buskirk and Jeff

Gunderson

Combing Archives cont.

Friday through Sunday I went from

session to session, pavilion to pavil-

ion, walked past vendor after ven-

dor, and had the opportunity to

listen to some incredibly important

women speak. My job duties and

professional interests are quite

varied so I was all over the place in

terms of sessions. Example topic

areas (in no particular order) of

sessions I attended included: cata-

loging; intellectual freedom; emerg-

ing leaders; technology trends; out-

reach; STEM; public libraries; robot-

ics. There were plenty of great ses-

sions but two standout ones that

caught my attention were: the PLA

“Rip us Off: Six Marketing Ideas You

Can Steal and Use at Your Library”

on Saturday and the Ignite Session

“Outreach—Keep it Simple, Stupid”

on Sunday. They were both chock

full of marketing, promo, and out-

reach ideas, and had eager present-

ers that make you feel motivated to

advocate for your library.

I made sure to attend LITA’s Top

Tech Trends panel on Sunday with

Carson Block, Andrea Davis, Grace

Dunbar, and Bonnie Tijerina. Good

thing I arrived early as it was stand-

ing room only by the time it got

started. Here are the topical themes

which stood out: technology infra-

structure and privacy issues. Dis-

course on increasing library band-

width and making scalable internal

connections because wifi is at capac-

ity with all of the devices accessing

it. There is also a continual push to

make internet access ubiquitous and

free. Not just mentioned in this

roundtable, but brought up at other

sessions as well are the two sides of

the patron privacy coin. On one side

there is a trend for libraries to pro-

vide secure websites and browser

privacy as a whole. Alternatively,

there is also a consumer-related

move towards linked data and track-

ing patron habits in order to provide

better service. The duality of patron

privacy is an interesting conundrum

for library staff.

Where else but at an ALA conference

can you come together and share

ideas with the best people…library

professionals, authors, activists

combined with inspirational celeb-

rity speakers? Not only did I listen

to Roberta Kaplan on her victorious

day, but also U.S. House Minority

Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke following

the keynote speech. The Enoch Pratt

Free Library Branch Manager,

Melanie Townsend Diggs, gave a

moving speech too. Bright and early

on the following Saturday morning, I

was awed by Gloria Steinhem while

I sipped coffee. And as if ALA were-

n’t bustling and exciting enough on

its own, the pride parade and events

about town made for some extra

fantastic eye candy and people

watching. It also meant a million

plus record number of people con-

verging around Moscone and on

BART. Suffice it to say I was pretty

exhausted and dare I say ready to

return to work to catch up and con-

vey all that I learned at ALA 2015.

My mind buzzing with a plethora of

innovative marketing and program-

ming ideas, feeling invigorated,

albeit tired. I highly recommend

anyone who has not yet been to

ALA’s annual conference go at least

once. Thank you BayNet!!!

By Monica Cromarty, Electronic

Resources Librarian at Livermore

Public Library

ALA Annual cont. “Where else

but at an ALA

conference

can you come

together and

share ideas

with the best

people”

Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 4

Lake Macquarie Shire mobile

library, 20 October 1950 Photo by

Sam Hood Courtesy of State

Library of New South Wales

“We never

really

finished our

research,

rather the

date of our

presentation

arrived.”

As a multi-type library association, BayNet represents librarians

and information professionals from all varieties of organizations.

Our mission is to strengthen connections among all types of San

Francisco Bay Area Libraries and Information Centers, and to

promote communication, professional development, cooperation,

and innovative resource sharing.

If you would like to know more about what we do, contact us via

email at baynetlibs@gmail.com

Bay Area Library and

Information Network

at SFPL, gives them a head

start.

The Mix is a 4,770-square-foot

space packed with high-end

equipment, including a maker-

space (complete with a 3D

printer), a recording studio, and

a video production space. The

space also has shelves with new

teen-focused books, such as

comic books and YA fiction,

with an inviting area to read,

study, or just hang out.

The project was managed by

the San Francisco Department

of Public Works with design

input from the library's Board

of Advising Youth (BAY). The

library plans to work with the

San Francisco Unified School

District to facilitate regular

classroom visits and workshops.

A few upcoming workshops

include “Social Media Secrets,”

“3D Printer Maker Lab,” and

an orientation to the awesome

music recording studio.

When I heard way back in 2013

that the San Francisco Public

Library (SFPL) was building a

dedicated teen digital media

space, I was thrilled. The city of

San Francisco is the home of

many technology companies,

such as Twitter and Adobe, and

many residents work for tech

companies in the surrounding

Bay Area.

But like other urban areas, a

digital divide exists in San

Francisco; many residents,

including teens, don't have

access to broadband or even

basic computers at home or

school.

How can San Francisco teens

have a chance to work at the

companies in their hometown

when they don't have access to

the latest and greatest technol-

ogy? And how can they learn

the skills they need to join the

tech workforce? The new digital

media space, dubbed The Mix

While The Mix is super cool, we

need to be a bit realistic here:

not every city has a $6 million

budget for its library's tech

space or the generous support

of companies like Microsoft.

But you can still support mak-

ing at your library and even

start a makerspace on a (much

smaller) budget. [Ed: Check out

the original article on TechSoup

for Libraries for resources to

help: http://

www.techsoupforlibraries.org/

blog/the-mix-brings-cutting-

edge-tech-to-san-francisco-teens

-fingertips]

By Ginny Miles from TechSoup

for Libraries

The Mix Brings Cutting Edge Tech to SF Teens’ Fingertips

Submit a story:

http://baynetlibs.org/news/

submission-guidelines/

Detail of The Mix entrance

Photo Courtesy of Ginny Miles

J OI N B A YN E T ONL I NE :

WWW . B A Y NE T L IB S . OR G