The information needs of the flea-market

Abstract

In industrial societies even the poorest people acquire artefacts to embellish their surroundings; such ‘bric-à-brac’ may in some cases be the detritus of a previous age or a more affluent environment, and in some cases is destined to become ‘collectable’ in time to come. Thus, bric-à-brac is of interest to those concerned with popular art and material culture (presumably it will be of interest to archaeologists in the future), and to professional designers, as well as to collectors and dealers and people of all kinds. Expertise resides in people themselves, notably collectors, but is also shared through a range of journals and other publications, some of which are elusive or ephemeral, and which may not be provided, or preserved, in libraries. Price guides comprise an important source of information, as do reference books which are often mines of detailed information. More scholarly works which would readily find a place in the art library are less common, but libraries should think carefully before rejecting the ‘literature of the flea-market’, for which there may be popular demand and without which serious study will be handicapped.