|
Purpose
 
Contents
Introduction |
|
 |
The Media Microtext Center has also been an important means for enriching my students' educational experiences, particularly in exposing them to the works of artists and designers whose work is kinetic or transformational in nature.
John Edmark with Alex Ross, head librarian, in the Art & Architecture Library, Nathan Cummings Art Building. |
|
|
|
As a lecturer in design in the department of Art and Art History, I make regular use of the Stanford Libraries for every course I teach. In my use of the libraries I have always found the staff to be knowledgeable, helpful and courteous. I have also found them to be creative in finding ways to balance the sometimes-conflicting needs of preservation and access.
This flexibility has had significant impact on the quality of my classes. For example, the course I teach on color theory and practice could not exist in its present form without the cooperation of the Art library staff. Class discussions about color are not very productive without the aid of relevant and precise examples. The Art library's copy of Josef Albers' Interaction of Color, with its custom-mixed and printed plates provides the core framework around which I have designed this course. The book is rare and valuable. As such, it is kept in the locked stacks, and is not normally permitted to leave the library. But after explaining to the library staff how enriching it would be to use this book in my lectures, I was permitted to bring it to the classroom, and my students have been able to benefit from this uniquely insightful work by one of the great color theorists of the twentieth century.
Although the Stanford Libraries' holdings are substantial, they don't always have a title I'm looking for-but not for long. Over the past two years I have requested the purchase of over 120 books, primarily through the Art library, in the fields of design and color. Every request has been granted, and those few titles for which I had an urgent and immediate need were rush-expedited, thus allowing me the option of incorporating new elements into a curriculum during the course of a term. (I also make frequent use of the inter-library loan service.) I have used these requested books along with the extant holdings to improve the quality of my courses in several ways: to increase and refine my own design knowledge; to develop my pedagogical skills, to create a reserve book collection on design principles for use by students in the basic design course; and to create another such collection on designers and their work for students in the applied design courses. A number of the books I have requested are not specifically about design, but contain diverse imagery from varied sources, which I use to provoke and inspire students in their creative process.
The Media Microtext Center has also been an important means for enriching my students' educational experiences, particularly in exposing them to the works of artists and designers whose work is kinetic or transformational in nature. Like the Art library, the Media Microtext Center has promptly responded to any and all requests for purchases, thus enabling me to introduce students to only-recently available documentation of the work of numerous artists and designers.
In addition to benefiting the students, the above-mentioned library resources are also of tremendous value to me as a practicing designer, providing rich fodder for my own creative pursuits.
John Edmark
John Edmark teaches visual design in the studio program of the department of Art & Art History and the Joint Graduate Program in Design. His design pursuits range from organically inspired cellular and kinetic works to products for storage, kitchen, and creative play. His work has led to the granting of nine US utility patents. In addition to his own product design practice, he consults for clients such as WET Design (Los Angeles), Hoberman Design (New York), and Smart Design (New York). He has a MA degree in Product Design from Stanford.
|
|
