Art Librarians Choose Vancouver as Their Canvas

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Some 480 art librarians, visual resources professionals, and curators came to British Columbia March 25-31 to meet, to mentor, and to marvel at the treasures of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the city's art deco and modernist architecture. The occasion was the 27th annual conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America, at the Hotel Vancouver.

Founded by a group of art librarians attending the 1972 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, ARLIS/NA modeled itself after the Art Libraries Society established in Great Britain three years earlier. The society has five type-of-library divisions, in addition to four sections and eight round tables devoted to such specialized topics as architecture, decorative arts, and space planning.

One effect of ARLIS/NA's energetic mentoring program is the sizable number of "First Time" tags sported by attendees. "They promote mentoring," ARLIS/NA President Mary Graham told American Libraries. "One …