Professor Liat Margolis presented a keynote talk at the symposium Materials Education and Research in Art and Design: A New Role for Libraries at the Rhode Island School of Design's Fleet Library, which took place June 6-8, 2013. Margolis, who spends most her time at the GRIT Lab, gave an historical account of the emergence of the contemporary models of material collections since the mid 1990s. Her talk described how the structuring principles of physical collections and databases were conceived as tools for innovation in material applications and for new approaches to the design process. For example, the act of decontextualizing materials from their conventional applications has proven to be effective for the development of imaginative solutions. Overall, foregrounding material investigation as an integral part of the design process allows designers to exceed material specification and instead engage in material design.

The symposium brought together international stakeholders, including artists, architects and designers, educators, researchers and librarians, to focus on the resources and documentation that are required to prepare art and design students for knowledgeable, responsible, and innovative use of materials in their professional work. Participants, including designers in the field, spoke to the current practical and expansive needs for information about materials; in addition faculty now teaching in art and design institutions articulated the support they need to develop and collect material knowledge and share it with their students. Librarians in the process of building collections and databases of material samples were also on hand to speak to the issues they have encountered. Respondents and other participants from Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) schools with materials collections, as well as faculty and librarians from these and other AICAD schools and university art and architecture programs at non-AICAD institutions attended the forum. The symposium included an evening keynote and reception, a day of sessions, and a half-day workshop. A white paper will serve as a record of the symposium and a guiding resource for the creation and development of materials collections.