clientdiag-jendibbern2009
TRANSCRIPT
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 1
Running Head: ISSUES IN EXHIBITION CATALOGUE CREATION
Client Diagnosis:
Issues in Exhibition Catalogue Creation and Historical Use of Pedestals
Jennifer Dibbern
Emporia State University
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 2
Abstract
This paper surveys the processes involved in diagnosing information user needs
in a researcher/client-based scenario. The primary format in which the
information diagnosis is reached is based on Robert Grover’s model for
diagnosing client information needs. The Gallery Director at the Rocky Mountain
College of Art and Design, Cortney Lane Stell, was interviewed to determine her
information needs. The client interview, diagnosis of her specific reference
needs, prescription and results of the information search are explained.
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 3
A patron enters a dimly lit gallery where they are greeted by a large
spherical object resting on what seems to be analogous to a pedestal. They
could be thinking many different things about their own interpretations of what
that object is supposed to be or represent. The gallery director has chosen that
specific object for a reason and placed it in a gallery with other objects that are
supposed to be viewed with it. The viewers may or may not know this and are
free to build their own opinions. For the situation where the viewer would like
clarification of what they see in front of them, there is usually an exhibition
catalogue to “present a more detailed description of the exhibitions main
themes”(Rouette, 2007).
The curator or gallery director creates the exhibition catalogue and there
are many things to be considered when creating a catalogue. Specific things to
consider when creating a catalogue include cost, it’s effectiveness as a method
of interpretation and the audience being targeted by the catalogue (Rouette,
2007). The gallery director of Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design,
Cortney Lane Stell, is in the process of making her first exhibition catalogue.
Over the past few months Ms. Stell has been collecting information on an Italian
artist that she will be featuring in her next visiting artist exhibition.
Ms. Stell was approached out of curiosity and was asked about her
general information needs as a gallery director. She described her day-to-day
professional activities including a general job description. When she was told
that there was a researcher there to help with her information needs, Ms. Stell
began to describe the exhibition catalogue and various information needs
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 4
surrounding its creation. After discussing those main information needs it was
concluded that the most helpful research would be focused on how an exhibition
catalogue was created and some historical research on an assortment of
sculptural elements. Using Robert Grover’s model for diagnosing information
needs, a number of information sources were found to assist Cortney Stell in the
creation of an exhibition catalogue. The following paragraphs describe the
process adhering to Grover’s model for assisting individuals, including diagnosis,
prescription, treatment and evaluation (Grover, 1993).
When diagnosing information needs, the role of the professional needs to
be established before any other aspects of the information search process can
be conducted (Grover & Carabell, 1995). In this case Cortney Lane Stell is a
friend of the researcher. This affects the professional/client relationship and the
information need is familiar. The process in which the diagnosis is found and the
information is presented is more personal and the entire process is more
dynamic from the beginning.
It is important to keep the client involved in the information search process
so they can become more familiar with the process. The client’s involvement
during the process eliminates the “Fast Food” professional/client relationship. In
other words it moves the relationship from the client ordering and then receiving
information sources that may not be specific enough to the clients needs, to a
situation where the client and professional can work together to find specific
information. This also teaches and empowers the client to use other information
sources than ones they would normally use. For example, when Ms. Stell was
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 5
asked what sources she was using to conduct her research, she replied with
“Google and the library here on campus. And, sometimes I use Jstor.” One
issue that came up was the fact that the Rocky Mountain College of Art and
Design is a private college and has to pay for most of it’s database access.
Because the college has to pay for subscriptions, they have access very few.
Through the process of the interview, two things were made very clear and were
set into a plan: Cortney Lane Stell needed research on creation of a catalogue
and assistance in finding more information resources. It was also clear that the
client preferred to do most of her research from her desk and a library that was
within walking distance.
The client’s diagnosis is as follows: there is a need to create a catalogue
for a small gallery that primarily caters to art students, professors and other
academia. The information sources that are found need to be accessed either
via computer or inter library loan to her library. Database use is limited because
the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design is a private institution. Also, the
client is a visual learner.
Since the client is a visual learner, information search sessions have been
pre-arranged on a weekly basis. During the information search sessions the
researcher and client sit together and conduct research. The researcher
prepares conducts some research before she arrives at Ms. Stells office. The
pre-research is done primarily to begin the sessions on solid footing. For
example, in searching for information on the history of pedestals, a surprisingly
hard subject to research, the professional prepared a list of sites and sources
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 6
that she knew produced a viable outcome, information wise. During the session,
Ms. Stell was shown how easily she could access online databases other than
Google.
Knowing that the professional is currently in school for a masters in library
science, the client asked if there any readings on searching could be
recommended. To assist in teaching the client to do some searching out-of-the-
box, two articles were recommended to her. The first article suggested was
Tools Every Searcher Should Know and Use by Suzanne Bell. This article in
particular was suggested primarily to help the client understand Boolean logic
when it comes to searching for information (Bell, 2007). It is very important for
the client to understand Boolean logic, especially when they prefer to conduct
searches on their own, because a variety of search engines like Google use it.
The second source that was suggested was Choosing the Right Resource
for the Question out of the Librarian’s Guide to Online Searching . This source
was chosen primarily because it gives informative guidance on aspects of online
searching, specifically if you are part of an institution that has little or no access
to databases (Bell, 2009). It also covers aspects of online searching tools like
Boolean, ways to choose the correct databases, and examples of using the web
for searching professionally.
Since the client Cortney Stell was becoming more comfortable with doing
some of her own searching on databases other than Google, the next step was
to begin searching for information on the pedestal and it’s use historically. Ms.
Stell had mentioned that she was having a hard time finding information on the
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 7
symbolic meaning of the pedestal, the history of the pedestal and even the use of
the term pedestal in journals and books. She was searching for pedestal
information because one of the objects that she is bringing in for the exhibit has a
pedestal-like form holding up what looks like a decaying spherical object (see
Figure 1). She would like to include a conversation about the historical and
symbolic uses of pedestals in her exhibition catalogue. The search for the
pedestal was a researchers dream challenge, or was it? Ms. Stell had already
tried to find information on pedestals in Jstor, the researchers first choice in the
searching for pedestal information, with no results. The next logical step was to
go bigger by searching databases like Wilson Web and EBSCO.
Wilson Web is always a good choice for database searching. It has a very
user-centered format that is very self-explanatory. It allows the user to enter
keywords into three different fields. This database is perfect for a user like
Cortney Lane Stell, who does most of her searching by plugging keywords into
Google. By entering pedestal , art and history , a number of sources appear.
However, the majority of them are in Italian and German. When these articles
were mentioned to Cortney she chose to use them. Since she is working with an
Italian artist, she has a translator. Also, the researcher knows someone who can
translate German so those articles can be accessed. If the search process were
focused on a different client, the articles in foreign languages would most
certainly be excluded. Other than those articles on pedestals as object, many
results were articles on the pedestal as symbolic object. For example, there was
an article on woman’s rights and activism that contained the word pedestal , but
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 8
was using it in a symbolic sense. Other keywords that helped in the search
process were Italian revival and decorative architecture.
The next two databases used were EBSCO and WorldCat. WorldCat is a
very useful database. It allows the user to enter three keywords and also allows
the user to choose the specific type of source they may want to use (i.e. books,
visual materials, internet resources, maps, etc.). WorldCat also brought retrieved
many sources but none of them contained information on the historical use of the
pedestal. EBSCOhost was the hardest to use, because with a topic that is hard
to research, like pedestals, there is no place to use a keyword. The search page
for EBSCOhost only allows the user to enter a title, author or text. The text field
is similar to a keyword search, however it is not clear in the results as to where
the text appears.
One very helpful source that was recommended to the client was
ProQuest Library Services. It has systems focused on academic libraries and
specific searches on art that might yield more comprehensive searches than the
other databases. The only drawback being that the user has to pay for service.
Courtney has mentioned the purchase to the librarian and she has yet to hear
back about the service. Out of the three weeks of searching for two days each
week, the information resource yield was two articles that mentioned pedestals.
The first source was a one-page article titled International Foundation of Art
Research that just briefly touched on pedestals (Lydiate, 2009). And, the second
source was a relatively detailed article titled The pedestal and the pendulum: fine
art practice, research and doctorates (Mottram & Rust, 2008). The two articles
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 9
not only touched on pedestals in the actual object sense and the symbolic sense,
they also spoke about research in the art world.
Cortney Lane Stell has been doing some research on her own to learn
how to research for and write and exhibition catalogue for the Maria Christina
Carlini exhibit she will be showing in the spring. Since the researcher has been
spending most of her time on the pedestal, the research on catalogue writing has
fallen to the client. The client has done a perfect job so far conducting her own
research outside of Google and has acquired similar exhibition catalogues to use
as guides.
Also, it was suggested by the professional that the client arrange an
appointment with Douglas Wagner, the Assistant Curator of Asian Art at the
Denver Art Museum. He has spent the past three years writing catalogues for
the department and would be a unique resource in learning how to prepare an
exhibition catalogue. Ms. Stell has agreed that he would be a good source to
use and has scheduled an appointment. The search for information on designing
an exhibition catalogue is ongoing at this point in the process to allow for more
time in researching the historical value of pedestals.
In interviewing Cortney Lane Stell in follow-up, it was found that the client
and researcher are pleased with the process thus far. The client had hoped to
find more information on pedestals since they appear in all of the pieces that will
be feature in the exhibit. However, the search has not ended. The information
search process has just begun and will not end until the catalogue is complete.
Even when the catalogue has been written, viewed and discarded, and the
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 10
exhibition has been taken down, the search will continue. Ms. Stell was very
pleased to have been presented information on different ways to search for
information and new tools to assist her research in the future. For now, the
search for information on the pedestal is ongoing because there is more
information on their historical use out there somewhere and it will be found.
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 11
Figure 1. This is a photograph of Madre by Maria Christina Carlini. It was
photographed by Anita Silva and is posted on the webpage www.abitare.it.
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Client Diagnosis: Exhibition Catalogue 12
References
Bell, S. (2009) Librarian’s guide to online searching . Santa Barbara: Libraries
Unlimited.
Bell, S. (2007) Tools every searcher should know and use. Online, Sept/Oct, 22-
27.
Grover, R. (1993). A proposed model for diagnosing information needs. SLMQ
21(2).
Grover, R., Carabell, J. Towards better information service: diagnosing
information needs. Special Libraries Association, winter, 1-10.
Lydiate, H. (2009). International foundation for Art Research: IFAR. Art , 327.
Mottram, J., Rust, C. (2008). The pedestal and the pendulum: fine art practice,
research and doctorates. Journal of Visual Arts Practice, 7(2), 133-151.
Rouette, G. (2007). Exhibitions: a practical guide for small museums and
galleries. Victoria, Australia: Museums Australia.
Silva, A. (2009, September 17). Maria christina carlini. Abitare. Retrieved
October 20, 2009, from http://www.abitare.it/highlights/maria-cristina-
carlini/.