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The art library – a moving target

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Paul Greenhalgh
Paul Greenhalgh*
Affiliation:
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
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Abstract

Art libraries are plural entities in that they have multiple functions and serve a variety of users. In the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, academic art libraries provide visual resources for artists and art students; they also provide a wide range of texts for students of increasingly specialised branches of the history of art and design and of ‘visual studies’. Their librarians should collaborate with academic colleagues to develop the library to serve the institution’s needs; at the same time the institution should recognise the role of the library. The broader spectrum represented by the ‘new art history’ challenges the art library to widen its scope, although this must be done through networking as well as by means of collection development. Scholars realise that they must generally expect to have to go to the major libraries and archives for primary source material, although smaller art libraries often have valuable materials and some scholars might be encouraged to share their own research collections through the libraries of their institutions. Information technology has become the key to tracing material, but is no substitute for direct interaction with the materials themselves.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , 1995 , pp. 13 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1995

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References

1. Dougherty, Richard M. and Hughes, Carol. Preferred futures for libraries: a summary of six workshops with university provosts and library directors. Mountain View, Calif.: Research Libraries Group, Inc., c. 1991.Google Scholar
2. It has been pointed out to me that a directory of art libraries in Britain does exist, although it does not specifically pillory non-providers of information, but rather, omits them altogether. This directory is edited by Varley, Gillian and is entitled Art and design documentation in the United Kingdom and Ireland: a directory of resources. ARLIS/UK & Ireland, 1993. ISBN 0 9519674 2 8.Google Scholar
3. Greenhalgh, Paul. Quotations and sources on design and the decorative arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press, c. 1993.Google Scholar
4. Greenhalgh, Paul. Ephemeral vistas: the Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World’s Fairs, 1851-1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press, c. 1988.Google Scholar