Twelve months after the Research Library set up a subscription, JSTOR continues to impress. JSTOR (Journal Storage) is a not-for-profit organisation that has digitised a huge inter-disciplinary archive of scholarly journals. This archive is being expanded continuously, with frequent updates about additions. For example, an update this week announced that pamphlet collections from leading UK libraries are to be released into JSTOR, giving access to more than 20,000 19th Century British pamphlets, a unique resource for matters of social history.
IP authenticated for the Museum, JSTOR access enables Museum staff to search, locate and download the full text of articles, as well as high-quality images from more than a thousand academic journals covering a wide range of disciplines. Journals are published in full, from the first issue. As some journals have been around for a long time, coverage can be up to 200 years. One of the earliest is a Royal Society paper of 1800.
Response from staff has been enthusiastic as shown in a recent email from Assistant Curator Geoff Barker: “…The journals in JSTOR have provided me with information it would have been impossible to access without expensive travel costs and even then many references would have been impossible to locate without electronic access….Many thanks for this wonderful initiative.”
It’s a fact that as a reference librarian you seldom see the result of research you do for clients. You search a variety of sources for an answer, hand over the material and that’s it. So it’s especially satisfying to see what turns out from the raw material gathered during the research process.
Last June, I had a phone call from artist Rachel Wells who made an appointment to visit the Research Library to consult texts about architectural details such as window frames and doors. This was in preparation to her forthcoming exhibition in The National Grid I checked our online catalogue and dug out books with illustrations/photographs/diagrams. Next day, however, when Rachel saw them, she realised she needed images of a more intricate design, such as pointed arches, rib vaults, foils, arcades, flying buttresses, clerestory windows, gargoyles – in other words, Gothic architecture. No problem. I gathered a slew of these from the shelves for her to peruse. Rachel works in the encaustic medium whereby (and I had to look this up) dry pigments are mixed with molten wax on a warm palette before being applied. The exterior of the finished painting is then exposed to a heat source, such as a heat gun, to burn in the colours by fusing and bonding them to the surface.
A few weeks later, Rachel kindly sent images of some of her exhibition works. They are in the encaustic medium whereby (I had to look this up) dry pigments are mixed with molten wax on a warm palette before being applied. The exterior of the finished painting is then exposed to a heat source, such as a heat gun, to burn in the colours by fusing and bonding them to the surface.
Anyway, here are the pictures, somewhat reduced in size. To see more of Rachel’s works, visit her website www.rachelwells.com.au
1 : The District // 20 x 122 cm // Encaustic on canvas
2: Grocer and Tea Dealer // 71 x 30 cm // Encaustic on canvas
3: Camouflage // 30 x 30 cm // Encaustic on canvas
4: Blue Light 1 // 30 x 30 cm // Encaustic on canvas
5: Red Sky at Night Sailors Delight // 20 x 122 cm // Encaustic on canvas
6: Verde 1 // 30 x 83 cm // Encaustic on canvas
7: Verde 2 // 30 x 83 cm // Encaustic on canvas
Rose Coloured // 120 x 83 cm // Encaustic on board
The Research Library at the Powerhouse Museum provides reference and research services to a diverse range of internal and external clients. As Reference Librarian, I am constantly surprised by the eclectic nature of information requests which I receive. Anything from Australian architectural photographers to zoological gardens, with Erté designs, Pan Am landing rights and Singer sewing machines in between!
In addition to the core research which I undertake in support of the Museum’s exhibitions, publications and programs, I respond to external requests for information assistance; emanating both from within Australia and from overseas. External clients include members of the public, authors, academics, other libraries, museums, galleries, film production companies, fashion designers and jewellery craftspeople.
This blog is a digest of my past and current research, and at the same time an information expedition. I hope that you enjoy the journey, and I welcome your contributions when you read about a research request which is within your area of expertise.
“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it”. Samuel Johnson, 1775.
Philippa Rossiter
