Annual Report 2008-2009 - National Gallery of Canada

Thinking Outside the Books
A Dictionary of Canadian
Artists – and the Gallery’s
massive archival database
– go online
“How does an art museum library move
into the digital arena?”
In August, in conjunction with the International Federation of
Library Associations conference in Quebec City, Library and
Archives staff collaborated on a special pre-conference for art
librarians at which Jonathan Franklin, Chief, Library, Archives
and Research Fellowships Program, presented a paper to international
colleagues called “Thinking Outside the Books,”
describing current web-based projects that are dramatically
increasing accessibility to the Library and Archives extensive
collection.
Franklin told the remarkable story of Colin S. MacDonald, who abandoned a civil service
career to doggedly pursue a project dear to his heart: the creation of a complete biographical
dictionary of Canadian artists. Using the library’s extensive collection and the Gallery’s rich
archival resources, MacDonald wrote 4,300 entries in eight volumes, in an informative,
unadorned style. Working in alphabetical order, he reached “Smith” before ill health forced
him to let the work go.
This year, with funding from the Members, Supporting Friends and Donors of the National
Gallery and NGC Foundation, art historians Anne Newlands and Judith Parker completed entries
for the online volume nine, from Smith to Z. Meanwhile, the Library and Archives partnered
with the Canadian Heritage Information Network to scan and load all the entries into the Artists
in Canada database. For the first time ever, a complete biographical dictionary of Canadian
artists is widely accessible to researchers, students, and the public at large.
Meanwhile, a new 50-year index to the Gallery’s exhibition catalogues and checklists,
covering 1880 to 1930 (and published with support from the National Gallery members), received
the 2008 Melva J. Dwyer Award from the Art Libraries Society of North America, a prize that
recognizes exceptional reference works on Canadian art. And, in another major resource-sharing
initiative generously supported by The Circle of Patrons of the National Gallery and NGC
Foundation, the web-accessible archives database, containing more than 32,000 records, was
launched. Now, a researcher conducting an online search can call up entries relating to exhibitions
and installations, loan details, and even original correspondence between the Gallery’s
first director, Eric Brown, and legendary artists Lawren Harris and Emily Carr.
The database will be updated as new materials enter the
collections. Other acquisitions include a recent gift of 34 woodblocks
by Carl Schaefer, and the purchase of two early photographs
of Carr, one from 1898 that shows her with Woo the
monkey (whose teeth marks have slightly damaged the photo).
The Library and Archives ongoing exhibition program provides
the opportunity for visitors to see such treasures first-hand.
This year, exhibitions featured drawings and cartoons by
Goodridge Roberts; scenes from the 1950s at the Gallery; and
Architecture in Quebec, marking the city’s 400th anniversary.
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