The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia, 1996 : Report

RESEARCH LIBRARY AND DATABASES The Research Library played a major role in the provision of information services and resources to the Second Triennial. Its contribution ranged from the development of databases, to the continued acquisition and documentation of resources for research, to the creation of an Internet site in cooperation with Education. In summary, the Library contributed to the Second Triennial in the following ways: • Continued to develop a research collection on contemporary art of the Asia­ Pacific Region for the research and development of the Triennials, the Gallery's permanent Collection, and other Gallery initiatives such as the forthcoming Asian Modernism exhibition. • Continued to catalogue and index books, exhibition catalogues and journal articles relating to contemporary Asian and Pacific art in a comprehensive manner to meet and anticipate information needs of the Project Team and other Gallery staff (eg index all artists listed in a catalogue or book, add subject headings and keywords to reflect Gallery interests). • Developed and maintained the Asia-Pacific Artists Database (AP-ARTS) on DB/Textworks, and the associated files on artists. • Developed and contributed to the maintenance of the Asia-Pacific Triennial Project Database (PROJECT) of contacts and addresses, and continued to participate in an advisory and training capacity. • Developed and maintained Internet and intranet sites for public access to information about the Triennial and its associated events, such as the conference, and about participating countries and artists. • Collected and maintained files of publicity and reviews about the Triennial and alerted Promotions and the Project Team to publicity as it appeared. • Collected photographs of the artists, artworks and events of the Triennial to provide historical documentation of the event and as a source of future promotional material. • Provided a reference and interlibrary loan service to staff involved in the project, including producing resource and artist lists for curators travelling overseas; and checking details for the catalogue. • Responded to many public inquiries, particularly from students from local schools and universities who were doing assignments on aspects of the Triennial. Asia-Pacific Research Collection The Asia-Pacific Research Collection continued to grow through gift, purchase, exchange and the collecting activities of curatorial team members in the countries they visited. This collection, which comprises exhibition catalogues, books and 5