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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 June 2016
The Michaelis Art Library, part of the Reference Division of the Johannesburg Public Library Service, originated with a collection of books purchased for the planned Johannesburg Art Gallery in the 1920s. Temporarily and then permanently housed in the Public Library, the collection became the nucleus of a growing art library, the largest public art library in South Africa. In recent years usage of the library declined as a result of political tensions, but then increased in parallel with a surge of vitality in the arts which heralded the end of apartheid and the emergence of democracy. During 1995 the Michaelis Art Library was due to move into Johannesburg’s central library building.