Join Us

Material Order is Growing

Material Order is accepting of all design material collections regardless of size or collecting scope; it is open, shared, inclusive, and welcoming. Our immediate audience consists of art and design libraries, international academic libraries, and corporate material libraries; as well as the librarians and staff who manage material collections. We also recognize an expanded audience of those who may be strictly focused on accessing information about design material collections, including design practitioners, international audiences, faculty, students both graduate and undergraduate, vendors, and manufacturers.

Interested in having a conversation about Material Order?
Contact Margot Nishimura, Interim Dean of Libraries, Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, mnishimu@risd.edu.

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

  • A shared collections management system with material-related taxonomy and data schema
  • Established cataloging standards
  • Information sharing including access to technical and user support
  • Shared costs of maintenance and hosting
  • Drive future development and enhancements, including taxonomy and data schema
  • Formalize testing and feedback processes
  • Professional community of material collection professionals

Material Order includes an open-source collection management database and an access system that allows searching across international material collections to support research and applications in the design fields. The material database taxonomy allows for a range of description and organization. The consortium recognizes all material collections have different foci depending on the needs of their institution.