Venice: a library Lovely

I had a lovely chat with warm and welcoming Erica, who has been with the Biennale Archives since 1993. Her role includes cataloguing, the title exchange program, and managing the editorial archive for Venice Biennale publications. 

She was kind enough to take a time away from the (lets face it- ubiquitous, never-ending, Sisyphean) cataloguing at hand to take me through some of their processes. I loved that her desk and cataloguing tasks were here, in an open plan office situated on the library floor (albeit in one of the many nooks of the library), streaming natural light upon her work. All too often cataloguing is a backroom, ghettoised task. Out here, you can at least be pestered by curious art library bloggers and other reprobates.

Accession or perish. Erica's on the case.

Sidney Nolan on the shelves at the Venice Biennale's Historical Archive of Contemporary Arts

Nolan, in fine company

Funsters at the Venice Biennale: Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

The Funsters 

Venice: Australia Council in the Card Catalogues.

Venice Biennale: Warhol and Ozco

I am an dreadful sucker for a card catalogue. As objects I find them fetishistically glorious (as long as I don't need to catalogue with them). Within this one I found some Warhol, and some Ozco.

Venice Biennale: card catalogues in the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

Venice Biennale: Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

Once housed in a Venetian palace, the Venice Biennale's Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts opened this Library facility deep in the Biennale's Central Pavilion (located in the sprawling Giardini) in 2010. Slashed with vivid red, the bold sprawl of this space aggregates many nooks, mezzanines and this breathtaking hall of print within which lectures and screenings take place.

Venice Biennale: shelf markers at the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

Venice Biennale: Library Trolleys

The trolley fetish continues...

Venice Biennale Catalogues: Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

then,

and now.

Venice : lurking in the arts section

Venice Biennale: on the shelves and in the systems of the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

The Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts hold over 138 000 titles. They use SBN, the National catalogue system (here is an IFLA conference paper on this library system), and have implemented various call number tweaks. Collection is organised by field (art, film theatre etc) and by name. Identifiers like T (theatre) and S (storia/history) are on the spines. Titles are also arranged by dimensions: over and under 100 pages, then by spine size. Here is a slightly clumsy Google translation to English about ASAC Biennale's (the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts) directives, databases and etc:

"ASACdati is a data base for the unified management of all the information on funds held by the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts Foundation La Biennale di Venezia, and all the activities and events planned by the Foundation from 1895 to the present. Has as its objectives the visibility and accessibility of the collections, continually increasing, and their management and archival organisation, in addition to the collection of news about the Biennale and its manifestations .

ASACdati, as part of the reorganisation of the Archives, was launched in late 2004, in collaboration with 3DEverywhere srl, a spin -off of the Laboratory of Multimedia Technology and Telecommunications Department of Information Engineering (DEI) of the University of Padua, which was conducted through analysis of the different types of data relating to funds, documents and information managed by ASAC.

Emerged from this study are similarities, differences and connections that bear witness to the great variety of objects and data collected. The strong interrelationship between the different funds and events, a characteristic that has always represented the added value of the Biennial and ASAC, has determined so the realisation of a peculiar and rich data base. It may make countless examples of these interrelationships , dates mainly from the fact that the same subjects have had in years had different functions.

The data base management plans made ​​and then the interaction of all funds ASAC and many other bibliographic, cataloging, administrative, historical, scientific and technical related to the world of the Biennale and the arts.

To date [projects] have been carried out cards - along the lines ICCD - for the management of Art Collection; Fund Posters, Foteteca ; Mediatheque; also tabs to manage information about all the events organized by the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia : Architecture Visual Arts, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theatre . It was thus possible to start the work of inventorying, cataloging and partial digital reproduction of the different documents."

Personally, I prefer my databases "rich and peculiar".

As a non-lending library they aren't stuck with a regular stocktake, but do stocktake their rare collections. Which are impressive. Over 2000 biennale artworks are included dating back to 1895, as well a sizeable collection of photographs documenting the events. Film resources are stored off site on Marghera, on the mainland across from Venice

in a specially controlled facility.

Venice : sculpture folios at the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

Venice: Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

Just look! It is pretty great, right?

Journals in Venice: the Biennales Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

Please excuse the poor images. All life had been squeezed from fine camera at this point. A common symptom of Venice generally/Biennales in particular. Journals look pretty alpha to me.

Venice Biennale: lover of all the art forms

Fellini shelf in the Venice Biennale's Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts

The Venice Biennale's Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts collection closely mirrors the history and development of the Biennale itself. Founded in 1895, until 1930 the Biennale was Fine Arts specific, and so is the Library collection. In 1930, the Biennale event became independent from the local Venetian Government, and became dependant on the National Fascist government. After various allegiances, the Biennale became privatised and independent in 1998. 

In a surprisingly un-fascist turn of events, it was during the 1930s that many of the satellite events were added to the agenda and today the Biennale comprises several distinct festivals in Art, Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music, and Theatre. The Library and Archives reflect this diverse and behemoth brief.