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A Guide to the Records at the Indiana University Archives

Finding aid prepared by Laura Bell.

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Indiana University, Bloomington. Fine Arts Library.

Title
Indiana University Fine Arts Library Director’s records, 1950-2007 (bulk 1969-2000)

Collection No.
C637

Extent
4.4 cubic feet

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
The Indiana University Fine Arts Library opened in 1962 in conjunction with the dedication of the new Fine Arts Building. Betty Jo (B.J.) Irvine served as the Director of the Fine Arts Library from 1969 to 2007. This collection consists of materials related to her tenure as Director of the Fine Arts Library.

Access Restrictions

Select files closed to researchers (noted in the folder list). Advance notice required for access to collection.

Administrative History

The Indiana University Fine Arts Library opened in 1962 in conjunction with the dedication of the new Fine Arts Building. It housed books and journals in the fields of visual arts, art history, architecture, fashion, design, and related disciplines. The library’s collections comprised over 130,000 volumes, over 3,000 periodicals, MFA thesis files from the School of Fine Arts, and a non-circulating collection of rare arts-related books, including over 2,000 artists’ books. The Fine Arts Library also housed a reference collection consisting of dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, bibliographies, and other research materials. Betty Jo (B.J.) Irvine (MLS 1969, Ph.D. 1982, Indiana University) was the Director of the Fine Arts Library from 1969 to 2007. She was originally hired by the IU Libraries and Henry Hope, the chair of the Fine Arts Department, in the summer of 1966 to manage the department’s sizeable slide collection.

The Fine Arts Library closed permanently on May 12, 2017, and its collections were relocated to the Herman B Wells Library.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into four series: Administrative files, IU Art Museum and Fine Arts Library Building Project, Library Faculty Status Files, and Management Review & Analysis Program (MRAP).

Scope and Content Note

The content of this collection contains materials pertaining to B.J. Irvine’s tenure as Director of the Fine Arts Library from 1969-2007, as well as some materials from 1950-1969 that were carried over from the previous director’s files. The collection is organized into four series: Administrative files (1962-2008), IU Art Museum & Fine Arts Library Building Project files (1967-1998), Library Faculty Status Files (1968-2003), and Management Review & Analysis Program (1973-1976).

The Fine Arts Library (FAL) series is broken down into four subseries. The Reports subseries (1962-2007) contains annual, budget, and statistical reports. The Correspondence subseries (1965-2004) consists of any and all ingoing and outgoing mail from 1965-2004 that reflect the overall operation of the library such as interdepartmental communications, letters to and from donors, correspondence with other libraries or book distributers, and other similar materials. The Collection Development subseries (1973-2008) contains documents focused on acquisitions, gifts from donors, and conspectuses. The final General subseries (1966-2000) consists of miscellaneous projects along with personnel policies and financial information.

The IU Art Museum and Fine Arts Library Building Project series focuses on materials pertaining to the planning and creation of the Fine Arts Library portion of the IU Art Museum/Fine Arts Library building which opened in 1962. The series contains four subseries. The Project Planning Documents subseries (1967-2007) focuses on all the documents directly related to the planning of the Fine Arts Library including budgets, correspondence, funding, research, and other records pertaining to the planning of the physical space of the library. The Furniture & Equipment Catalogs and Samples subseries (1970-1980) contains catalogs and samples the Fine Arts Library team used to purchase files for the Fine Arts Library. As the title suggests, the Fine Arts Library Building Plans subseries (1970-1981) consists of all the building plans on the Fine Arts Library. The final Research Aids – Other Libraries subseries (1970s) consists of information and examples gathered from other libraries, such as the University of Michigan’s Fine Arts Library, to help the staff plan the physical space as well as the Fine Arts Library organizational systems.

The Faculty Status series (1968-2003) contains any and all documents related to faculty status and are arranged first in committee groups and then in rough chronological order.

The Management Review & Analysis Program (MRAP) (1973-1976) series consists of documents pertaining to the conducted program and arranged in roughly chronological order.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Indiana University, Bloomington. Fine Arts Library--Archives.
  • Indiana University, Bloomington. Fine Arts Library--Records and correspondence.
• • Topics
  • Art libraries--Administration--History--20th century--Sources.
  • Art libraries--Collection development--History--20th century--Sources.
  • Library buildings--Designs and plans--History--20th century--Sources.
  • Art libraries--Indiana--Bloomington--History--20th century--Sources.

Separated Material

Audio-Visual materials showing some of Irvine’s research for planning the Fine Arts Library building were separated from the collection and are stored with the University Archives Photograph Collection. These materials include 32 photographs, 13 negative film strips, and 1 film roll of the University of Michigan’s Tappan Hall Fine Arts Library.

Related Material

Related collections include: the Betty Jo Irvine papers, 1963-2013 (C648).

Additional records such as newsletters, annual reports, bulletins, and publications may be accessed in the Archives of Institutional Memory

Archived web sites for the Library may be included in Archive-It

Related photographs may be available in the University Archives Photographs Database

Administrative Information

Container List

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