Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

In honor of National Library Week, I took a few minutes to sit down with Marilyn Carbonell, the Museum's Head of Library Services to find out what is going on at the Spencer Art Reference Library. It turns out there is quite a bit!

First we talked a little about the importance of national library week. This year is the 50th anniversary of an organization that began because people were not spending as much time with books as they were with radios and television (now we could add computers and the internet, even blogs!).

The theme for national library week is Join the Circle of Knowledge @ Your Library. Marilyn was quite pleased with the theme because she says it represents the same philosophy of the Nelson-Atkins. A person may see a work of art in the galleries and be inspired to visit the Library to research that artist. Likewise, someone may be reading about an artist in the Library and want to visit a work of art in our collection. They are both points on the circle of knowledge.

Marilyn spoke of the many services the Library offers including book displays on changing topics. The current display is called Orderly Nature: Gardens in Art and History. The list includes books on gardens in art, artists's gardens and the history of gardens throughout the world, including China, Japan, Versailles and India. Of course, the list includes a book on the Museum's own Kansas City Sculpture Park (originally called the Henry Moore Sculpture Garden).

Additional resources include reading lists for museum exhibitions and a whopping supply of magazines and newspapers on hand in the Reading Room. Of course, the Library staff is a wealth of knowledge and is happy to help with anything from general questions to heavy duty research.

Even if you don't have a specific research need or feel intimidated by the idea of visiting an art library, don't worry. The Reading Room is full of interesting collections of items from map and travel books to Chinese encyclopedias. Be sure to stop by and join in the circle!

Stay tuned for more this week including recent acquisitions and more interesting things to find in the Reading Room. I hope to finally answer my personal question: What is all that stuff in the Museum Archives?