Collection development plays a pivotal role in all libraries, and should be guided by a library’s purpose and the needs of its users. The Reference Library at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts aims to provide material on all the arts, within a broad context, and acquires material in several formats and in many languages. Materials acquired include rare books, the collections of private scholars, journals, microfilm of mss, visual resources, videos, and sound recordings. It is hoped that some of the problems that have been encountered can be resolved by means of contact and cooperation with other art libraries in Southern and South-East Asia.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) is responsible for the Filipino cultural heritage; its Library, initiated in 1969, serves as a national repository of material on art and the humanities, and is available to the public for reference. The collections have developed in part thanks to gifts, of publications and of funds; materials are acquired by purchase, through exchange agreements, and because other CCP departments deposit their publications in the Library. The Library is now short of both space and staff. Printed materials are classified using an expanded version of LC; non-print materials are organised by format and access number, a system which is increasingly unsatisfactory. Reference and bibliographic services include the Library’s own catalogue, and a Union cataloge on Philippine Culture produced by the Library. Future plans include automation and the creation of a database devoted to Filipino art and culture.

Australia has traditionally adopted a Eurocentric outlook which has begun to be modified in the last decade by reappraisal of the country’s location in the Asia-Pacific region. The Australian National Gallery has only recently developed its collections of the textiles of South and Southeastern Asia and of related research materials, yet it already accommodates the world’s leading public collection of Indian textiles exported to Southeast Asia. Acquisition of both contemporary and antiquarian library materials has been complicated by the range of languages and cultures involved, the history of the textile trade, colonial publishing, and the problems encountered in dealing with a varying degree of organisation in local publishing and distribution. Nonetheless, with patience, as a result of travelling, by means of networking, and with the help of distributors, it has proved possible to build a worthwhile collection without depending too exclusively on Western publications.

The V&A Museum possesses the largest collection of Indian art outside the Indian sub-continent, dating from the acquisition of items from the Great Exhibition and of collections acquired by the Honourable East India Company. The Nehru Gallery of Indian Art, which opened in 1990, enabled a great deal of this material to be displayed. The Indian Collection is served by its own small research library, the records of which are currently being incorporated in the catalogue of the National Art Library at the Museum, while the National Art Library itself provides scholarly material on Indian art, especially the fine and decorative arts, in the major European languages. Some sources for obtaining new publications from India are noted.

French interest in India and neighbouring regions dates back to the 17th century. Oriental studies developed as a distinct discipline through the 19th century, stimulated in France by French colonial activities in Indochina, and culminating at the end of the century in the emergence of Oriental art and archaeology as a subject in its own right. The Commission Archéologique de l’Indochine was established in 1898, and became the Ecole Francaise d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in 1901 with responsibility for listing and protecting antiquities in the French colonies; its library in Paris constitutes a major resource. France’s relationship with Afghanistan facilitated French archaeological activities in that country until 1975; archaeological finds enabled the Musée Guimet to extend its scope and to become a museum of Asiatic art, and its library became and remains the major library in Paris so far as Asian art is concerned. The library of the Ecole du Louvre supports courses on Asian art, while the Bibliothèque Nationale and such libraries as the Bibliothèque Forney also contain valuable collections. Photographic collections in some of these institutions have not been so well looked after as books, and their condition is a matter of concern. Unpublished archival materials are also held in some of the same institutions. The resources of a number of smaller, specialised institutes are currently being brought together in a new building under the name ‘Institute d’Asie du Collège de France’, while some other collections are being linked with the library of the EFEO to create a ‘Bibliothèque d’Asie’. Meanwhile it remains to be seen whether the new Bibliothèque Nationale des Arts will include the arts of Asia within its scope. No library in France has responsibility for modern Indian art. (An English translation follows the text in French).

On December 1st 1989 the Indonesian Archaeology Photograph and Documentation System (IAPDS) was launched in Leiden. The project, which is scheduled to last three years, has both a photographic and a documentary aspect. The photographic aspect concerns firstly the conservation of the collection of black and white photographs of the Archaeological Service of the Netherlands-Indies, made between 1901 and 1941, and of the Indonesian Archaeological Survey, dating from 1945 to 1955. This collection consists of more than 25,000 photographs, of which 21,855 are kept in various institutions in Leiden. Secondly, the project envisages making a set of negatives of the complete collection, and of new, large prints which will be used by students and researchers. These will be kept at Leiden University Library. The documentation aspect of the project will involve the creating of a database in which data on the photographs, including information regarding the subjects depicted as well as bibliographic references, will be held. In a later phase it is intended to add other archaeological photographic collections, from elsewhere in the Netherlands and from Southeast Asia.

There is a desperate and urgent need to conserve works of art and documentary materials in Southeast Asia, where the rigours of the climate and the effects of war and political unrest have ravaged the cultural heritage. An initiative launched by Cornell University in Cambodia, with the intention of preserving documentary materials and training Cambodian librarians in conservation techniques, may result in the development of a badly-needed regional centre which would complement the National Archives of the Philippines, and the Regional Conservation Centres established by IFLA on the Pacific rim, in Australia and Japan. Information and expertise are available from UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICCROM, ICOM, the Getty Conservation Institute, IIC, IADA, IPC, IFLA, ICA, and other international and US organisations.