How to properly engage in successful bibliographic instruction at an art and architecture library. Greet, listen, assess, provide, and invite back!

1. Bibliographic Instruction:
Art & Architecture
Mēgan A. Oliver, MLIS

2. Know Your Constituents
• Curators
• Students & Faculty
• Visiting Scholars & Historians
• Architects
• Museumgoers
• Art appraisers
• Bibliophiles Detail of The Defenders of the Eucharist by Peter Paul Rubens ↑

3. Service Philosophy
• Quality customer service, diplomacy,
and attentiveness are key.
• Make a patron’s visit as pleasant as a
park on Sunday afternoon, and
they will return.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
by Georges Seurat →

4. Demystify the Library
← Fumée d’Ambre Gris by John Singer Sargent
• Greet
• Listen
• Assess
• Provide
• Invite back

5. Greet
• The best way to begin the bibliographic instruction process is to greet
patrons when they arrive.
• Floating reference assistance in the reading room and ready reference area.
• Each patron should be shown how to use the library and its catalog for
themselves, time permitting. This gives the user greater confidence on return
visits.

6. Listen
• The most important part of
directing users is listening intently
during the reference interview.
• Repeat what the patron has said back
to them, for clarity.
Tristan and Isolde by Salvador Dalí →

7. Assess
• Determine what is readily accessible at your library first.
• Choose sources that give the patron the most substantial amount of
information, to avoid overloading them with resources. What sources
provide sufficient access to research literature?
• And what resources are up-to-date?

8. Provide Art Specific Resources
• Library catalog and collections
• Kubikat
• Grove Art/Oxford Art Online
• JSTOR
• Art Index Retrospective
• Bénézit Dictionary of Artists

9. Provide Architecture Specific Resources
• Library Catalog and collections, most especially the ARTIC Archive Image
and Media Collection.
• The Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals.
• Dictionary of Architecture and Construction.
• ARTBibliographies Modern.
• Select digital libraries and historical societies.

10. Bibliographies & Finding Aids
• Anticipate needs and provide bibliographies for upcoming museum and
library exhibitions.
• Create finding aids for popular, information-rich archival and special
collections.
• Create and maintain research guides that inform on art movements,
architectural styles, and periods represented in the museum’s permanent
collection.
• Connect with regional arts faculty and maintain course bibliographies, if
applicable.

11. Engage & Invite Back
• Once you’ve taught someone how to use
the facility and provided them with a
starting point, end the reference
interview to let them begin their studies.
• Check back periodically and cordially
invite the patron to return.

12. Hypotheticals
• Curatorial
• Visiting faculty
• Curious public patron
The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne-Jones →

13. Thank You!
Mēgan A. Oliver, MLIS
ms.meganoliver@gmail.com