News from the IFA Library The IFA houses two libraries: The Stephen Chan Library of Fine Arts, located in the Duke House, and the Conservation Center Library, situated on the second floor of the Conservation Center’s Stephen Chan House. The libraries support the research and curricular needs of the Institute’s graduate programs in art history, archaeology, and art object conservation. They hold over 150,000 volumes, subscribe to over 700 periodicals, and maintain distinguished rare book and videotape collections.
– Amy Lucker, Head Librarian
51 Institute of Fine Arts Annual 2012 - 2013
With the IFA’s new two-year M.A. program now in full swing the library has seen some changes. We continue to see larger and larger numbers of items requested for reserve, as well as book orders coming in from faculty and students. As is the case for art history and the humanities in general, we have seen no decrease in the number of traditional (i.e., paper) publications. Prices and numbers both continue to increase in our field. Price increases can be attributed at least in part to rising costs for image publication, due to tightening of rights’ restrictions (and confusion regarding the who and how thereof). While we have been fortunate in the past few years in receiving some major gifts—in the areas of modern and contemporary art and Latin American and Spanish art—we nonetheless continue to rely
on purchases of materials, and have a fairly aggressive collection development policy. We hope to be able to continue this, and to allow our collections to grow, as they will remain important to scholarship in the field for generations to come.
From left: Michael Reid (M.A. candidate) and Hillary Brody (M.A. candidate)
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