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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2006 Annual Report
Library
As envisioned by BBG's first president, Charles Stuart Gager, the purpose of the Garden's library is to provide access to the accumulated knowledge contained in botanical and horticultural literature. Today, making resources useful to visitors also means making them available in the electronic universe, and BBG's Library Services department now provides access to nearly 700 scholarly journals in digital format. During the year, with on-site computer access to these journals, readers viewed over 2,500 pages, representing a 60% increase over the previous year.
The artists of BBG's Florilegium Society are creating an extraordinary record of BBG's gardens and collections. Above, Nymphaea 'Bagdad' by Leslie Berge, 2006. Colored pencil on Strathmore 500 Series, 16" x 14".
BBG also continues to acquire, catalog, preserve, and make accessible traditional book and serial collections. The library added more than 1,100 print titles between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, bringing the total number of volumes in the collection to over 44,300. More than 400 of the titles acquired this year were new works, published in 2005 and 2006.
With the addition of new staff, the Gardener's Resource Center was able to expand Gardener's Help Line hours. Expert staff are available to answer questions on topics such as pests and diseases, culture and propagation, plant identification, and care instructions, in person or by phone or e-mail. Library Services handled an average of 555 visitors and information requests each month.Director of Library Services Patricia Jonas again served as chair of the Awards Committee for the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, evaluating 26 botanical and horticultural books. The winners were announced at the annual council meeting in May.
With a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the BBG library digitized 235 of artist Maud H. Purdy's paintings, illustrations, and sketches made during her 32 years at the Garden. A new web page provides the first step in rescuing this artist's original, often daring work from obscurity and making it available for study and appreciation by a public almost entirely unacquainted with it. Additional support from NYSCA funded planning for a fall 2007 exhibition of Purdy's work and the work of other women botanical artists who have painted from life at BBG.
Throughout the year, the 44 artists of the Florilegium Society capture the Garden's most glorious botanical moments and provide an extraordinary record of BBG's gardens and collections. Although other florilegium societies exist—several inspired by BBG's example—few require that its artists paint only plants growing in a specific, taxonomically verified collection, and no other florilegium possesses herbarium specimens for every plant painted. One hundred twenty-six works of art have been donated to BBG since the founding of the society in 2000. In spring 2006, the Florilegium Society's fourth public exhibition was mounted at the Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, one of the largest botanical gardens in Europe, where it drew more than 6,000 visitors during its run.
In order to preserve the valuable information and historical resources of the Garden, Library Services retained a records management consultant and produced BBG's first Records Retention Manual. Based on interviews with key staff members, the manual includes universal records management policies and procedures and specific records retention schedules for each department. The new policies will be rolled out during the coming year.