| International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle |  |
Which way SIBMAS?Peter Bassett Documents et Temoignages des Arts du Spectacle: Pourquoi et Comment? / Collecting and Recording the Performing Arts: Why and How? Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle / International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts 20e Congrès International / 20th International Congress Antwerp 4-7 September 1994. Acta. Antwerp : 1995, pp. 63-64 I very much welcome the sense of reappraisal that the inclusion of this session in this conference indicates. Every institution needs to review its aims from time to time and changing cultural and economic factors make such a process imperative. SIBMAS is an international organisation serving the interests of members who have their own cultural and national backgrounds and who work in a widely different range of institutions and circumstances. Because of this and because the expectations of the employers are all different, expectations of what SIBMAS can do for the individual are wildly different. In one situation it might be vital for the status of a member that he be known for his academic credentials and publications and SIBMAS via its conference and subsequently published conference papers offers a forum for this. I am expected to provide the population of a college with information on the performing arts quickly, effectively and at minimal cost. The international contacts I make through SIBMAS, again mainly through the conference, assist me to do this. So that the biannual conference is, at present, the most effective and useful aspect of of the work of SIBMAS to the general member. Secondly I find the SIBMAS/FIRT Bulletin is a helpful current awareness medium again because it has the international dimension that I require. I need both of these things, find them very useful and would like to see them continue, and, if possible, expanded. In its reappraisal I think the SIBMAS needs to look at a number of factors: I think that SIBMAS needs to look at its membership. Who are the members, what part do they play in SIBMAS?. More importantly who is out there who are NOT members and why? Lack of relevance? Lack of money for membership / conference fees? I know of several important dance collections who are not represented in SIBMAS because they have no funding available for membership fees or to go to conferences. Most of the British delegates here today will have funded themselves to a greater or lesser extent either in cash or in time or in both. Can SIBMAS find ways to increase membership and the involvement of members? It appears, at membership level, even more difficult for the Executive Committee to meet with sufficient regularity. It is right that the membership of the Executive Committee consists of those of ability and good standing - but should it also be limited to those whose institutions will pay for their expenses or those who are willing to pay for themselves. Should the costs of meeting limit the activities of the Executive Committee? I think that SIBMAS should encourage practical cooperation between its members to encourage the listing and indexing of resources. To encourage such things as interlending and electronic publishing: the exchange of personnel between institutions. I would like to see SIBMAS find ways to break down the language barrier between its members. I would like to see SIBMAS extend its influence on the major international political institutions and create links between them and the individual institutions in each country to help raise images and attract more funding. In the current recession the performing arts are increasingly marginalised financially against the costs of providing health care, housing and social benefits. Archives, libraries and museums are at the bottom of the performing arts pile. We need all the political advice and assistance that we can get to change this and we increasingly we need to do this internationally as well as nationally. I believe that SIBMAS is of value to its members because it is an international organisation linking a profession of scattered, isolated institutions. And I think that its potential is greater. But the internationality which is its strength is also its weakness because of the difficulties of communication. How can SIBMAS, its members and its Executive Committee increase their ability to communicate? Communications are costly. Information technology might well seem to be part of an answer but the constituent organisations are mostly underfunded and are beginning to find the increasing sophistication of IT beyond their means. SIBMAS itself is reported to be in financial difficulties and will need to find adequate funding to survive and enable it to perform effectively. If it cannot solve these problems of distance and funding even on the short term so that it can develop and realise its potential I can see little point in its survival. 20th Congress URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas94/antw_18.html |
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