Q & A with our Librarians What are your favorite books in the library? Debby: One of my favorite books is a beautiful little book called Riddle Poems by Emily Dickinson. Here is an example of one of the riddles: A Route of Evanescence With a revolving wheelA Resonance of EmeraldA Rush of CochinealAnd every Blossom on the Bush Adjusts its tumbled HeadThe Mail from Tunis, probably, An Easy Morning’s Ride.
Visit the library to find out the answer!
I also love all the Catalogs Raisonné about artists in the Museum’s collection. The typical catalogue raisonné is a book (often multi volume) giving a comprehensive catalogue of artworks by an artist. The essential elements of a catalogue raisonné are that it purports to be an exhaustive list of works for a specified artist. The catalogs are a wonderful way to acquaint yourself with the body of work of your favorite artist and are heavily used by our curators and art appraisers. Christine: Interaction of Color by Josef Albers. This is a three-part book; whose illustrations are studies composed of color-printed paper and mounted colored paper, some with cutouts. Do you have a favorite artwork in the Museum?
Debby: My favorite artwork is the abstraction by Wassily Kandinsky.
Christine: Lyre (1967) by Kenneth Noland, who happened to be a student of Josef Albers. This huge stripe painting hangs right behind the reference desk, and I enjoy looking at it every day!
What was the most exciting thing to happen in the Library?
Debby & Christine: Watching the curators, conservators, and preparators install the Kenneth Noland painting above the reference desk. It was amazing to watch the staff unroll, stretch, vacuum and hang this very large painting, which had been in storage for decades. They made it look so easy …and it fit perfectly! What is the oldest book in the library?
Debby: From my research, the oldest book we have was printed in 1698 in Amsterdam titled Iconologie ou la Science des Emblemes Devises, by Cesar Ripa. It is essentially a two volume set of commonly used images in artwork at the time to convey different meanings or symbolism. For example, a person holding a stick with an
entwined serpent generally represents medicine. The images are still referenced today by anyone who wants to understand the meanings represented in old European paintings. Since the book is still useful, we purchased a facsimile version that anyone can use. Can you tell us about any interesting visitors to the Library?
Christine: In May 2010, a group of librarians from Azerbaijan visited Worcester and I gave them a tour and introduction to the WAM library. Since I do not speak Azerbaijani, the group was accompanied by a professional interpreter from California. The stop at the WAM library was part of a trip organized by the ICW-International Center of Worcester. How do we acquire all of the exhibition catalogs that are available in the library?
Debby: Whenever the Museum publishes a catalog, the library sends a copy to all of our exchange partners all over the world. Exchange partners are other art museum libraries that also send us all of their catalogs so we provide each other with important catalogs without having to purchase anything. Once when we opened up a box from a Museum in Germany we found a giant set of heavy keys that must have been keys to the Museum! We immediately sent those back! Have you ever had any unusual requests at the reference desk?
Christine: One of the more unusual requests I received was from a young man, who asked me to print out an image of a painting of the Virgin Mary from the museum’s permanent collection. After looking carefully at the printout, he thanked me and said that he could definitely use this image in his tattooing business.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Debby: Working with students who are writing papers about objects in the Museum and don’t know where or how to start is very rewarding for a librarian. We assist students from all the Worcester colleges, and many of them have never been in the Museum before, let alone a specialized art library. Once a woman I was helping left a message saying she got an A on her paper thanks to us.
Thank you Volunteers!
We wouldn’t be able to run our library without the help of our volunteers, some of whom have been here for years. They are absolutely indispensable for the everyday operation of the library.
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Deborah Smock Aframe, Head Librarian
Debby earned a BA in Sociology and Fine Art from Ohio Wesleyan University, a Master’s Degree in Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University in Medford, MA. Before becoming head of the Museum Library, Deborah was the Associate Librarian at the Museum in charge of reference, slide acquisitions and cataloging. Before she became the Art Museum Librarian, Deborah was the corporate librarian for a technology company, IDG in Framingham, MA, and later an account manager for the same company. Previous to acquiring her master’s degree in library science, Deborah was a social worker with court committed youth in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. When I first moved to Worcester in 1980 and visited the Worcester Art Museum and saw the library there, I knew that was where I wanted to work. Christine Clayton, Assistant Librarian
Christine worked in technical services at Harvard University libraries before she joined the WAM team. A native of Germany, she came to the United States on a DAAD scholarship to study English in the graduate school of Northwestern University, before receiving her MA in English literature and language from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. She is multilingual (German, Dutch, French) and worked as a professional, accredited translator for international corporations and educational institutions.
Christine received a MLIS from Simmons College in 2003. At the WAM library, she is responsible for cataloging a wide variety of materials. She is also in charge of the rare books collection. Since she started working at the Worcester Art Museum, she has greatly reduced a decades-old cataloging backlog of books and hard-to-find pamphlets, increasing access to the library’s holdings. In addition to her cataloging duties she provides library instruction and reference services to staff, researchers, students, and museum visitors.