Tag: ARLIS/NA

NEW YORK, NY (March 1, 2018)—The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) is pleased to announce Kathryn Wayne as the recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Service Award. She is the 27th person to receive the Society’s highest honor. The Distinguished Service Award honors an individual whose exemplary service in art librarianship, visual resources curatorship, or a related field has made an outstanding national or international contribution to art information. Kathryn’s deep and far-reaching contributions to the Society and to the field of art librarianship perfectly embody the accomplishments most valued by the Society.

The award was presented to Kathryn by her nominator, Gregory P. J. Most, at ARLIS/NA’s 46th annual conference convocation ceremony, held in New York City on Wednesday, February 28, 2018. Gregory is Chief of the Image Collections at the National Gallery of Art.

Kathryn recently retired as head of the Art History/Classics Library at the University of California, Berkeley. She came to UC Berkeley in 1990 as Architecture and Landscape Architecture Librarian at Berkeley’s Environmental Design Library following many years as Architecture Librarian at the University of Arizona.

Throughout her career Kathryn has taken on leadership positions within the Society. In her role as 27th President of ARLIS/NA, she oversaw the transition to a new management firm, while also pursuing a very public role in advocacy. She initiated letters to Congress backing policies that affected copyright and database legislation; wrote to the Getty Information Institute concerning the importance of continuing the Getty Vocabulary Program; addressed then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani concerning ARLIS/NA’s stand on the controversial Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibition, Sensation, and corresponded with the President of the National Architectural Accrediting Board concerning recommendations for changing its standards for architecture libraries, many of which were adopted. In addition to serving as president of the national organization, she also served as Western Regional Representative and Chapter Chair for both the Arizona and Northern California Chapters.

Kathryn co-chaired the national conference in 1993, and this work served to inform one of Kathryn’s enduring legacies to the Society. Her fundraising for the 2013 Pasadena and 2014 Washington D.C. conferences yielded record amounts. She has a special ability to persuade individuals, companies, and organizations to generously support the mission of the Society. Her triumphs as a fundraiser made these conferences financially successful beyond all expectations.

Two of her notable publications are the seminal reference book Architecture Sourcebook: A Guide to Resources on the Practice of Architecture published by Omnigraphics in 1997, and her contribution to the 33-volume Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences published by CRC Press in 2010, for which she wrote the chapter on Art Librarianship.

Despite these impressive professional accomplishments, Kathryn never lost sight of the fundamental role of librarianship at her home institutions. Her dedication to students endured throughout her career. She established an information literacy program at the University of California, Berkeley School of Environmental Design and shared her experience through a subsequent professional presentation on the program. She mentored San Jose State library school students and University of California undergraduate students. One former student wrote, “Kathryn has not only enriched the profession, she has shaped my life.”

For her contributions to the field at large and to ARLIS/NA in particular, Kathryn Wayne has been awarded the 2017 Distinguished Service Award.

The members of the 2017 ARLIS/NA Distinguished Service Award Sub-Committee were: Rachel Resnik (chair), Maureen Burns, Heather Koopmans, Maria Oldal, and Liv Valmestad.

About the Art Libraries Society of North America
Founded in 1972, the Art Libraries Society of North America is a dynamic, international organization of more than 1,000 individuals devoted to fostering excellence in art and design librarianship and image management in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The membership includes architecture and art librarians, visual resources professionals, artists, curators, educators, publishers, students, and others interested in visual arts information. To serve this diverse constituency, the Society provides a wide range of programs and services within an organizational structure that encourages participation at all levels.