Copyright legislation in the UK changed significantly in 2014, and this article provides an overview to some of the most relevant changes to the exceptions1 in copyright law that can be used by archivists and librarians. Subscribers to ALJ will have read Tim Padfield's excellent introduction to UK copyright law for art librarians in 2012, much of which is still relevant and will not be repeated here. Given the varied nature of art library and archive collections in the UK, and the complex nature of the law in this area, it is intended that the following general guidance to the 2014 legislative changes will highlight areas for further study: such basic guidance should not be used to inform internal policy or decision-making. The article also includes a list of sources for more detailed information on the law, in the references section.

Michael Takeo Magruder, visual artist and researcher, discusses his digital and new media art and practice with Jeremy Pilcher, lawyer and academic, whose research engages with the intersection of art and law. Takeo's work asks viewers to question their relationship both to and within the real-time data flows generated by emerging technologies and the implications these have for archives. His art concerns the way institutions use such systems to create narratives that structure societies. This conversation discusses how Takeo's practice invites us, as individuals, to critically reflect on the implications of the stories that are both told to and about us by using gathered and distributed data.

The focus of this article will be on the artistic practice of found footage film-making—with which is understood the practice of creating new films with extant material—and the ‘aesthetics of access’. Lucas Hilderbrand introduces this term in his 2009 publication Inherent Vice, in which he assembles issues of copyright, preservation and bootlegging and applies it to the specific case study of VHS. When he speaks of aesthetics of access he does so in reference to the formal characteristics of the image. That is how the term is intended here as well. So for instance, film-maker Matthias Müller shot the footage he has used to compile his found footage film Home Stories (1990) with a 16 mm film camera off a television screen. Whether this mode of production was favoured for its specific visual impact or for circumventing having to obtain permission to re-use the (mainly Hollywood feature) film material, the resulting slightly degraded look of the duplicated material is a direct result of how the material was accessed, hence its ‘aesthetics of access’. This article argues that the legal provenance of archival material, and potential ways of circumventing legal restrictions in obtaining that material, can be traced in the ultimate form of found footage films. It also argues that in their new amalgamated states, the films emphasise such concepts as ownership and authorship and that they can be seen as illustrative in their allusions to the ways that institutional context, copyright and film form are interdependent.

Visual forms of communication are dominant in the digital era. As the visual has increased in influence throughout contemporary culture, art & design slide collections, which would have traditionally helped users make sense of the visual world, have begun to rapidly disappear. How are students of art & design (and beyond) engaging with this visual proliferation now they can no longer rely on the support of the institutional slide collections and their expert staff?

Mike Daines, the founder of the eLexicons e-learning resource for the visual arts, tells the story of its development, from the early origins as a printed visual dictionary of typography, to its current iteration as an online database, covering subjects from graphic design to fashion. The editorial challenges, as well as the technical setbacks are described, as well as the resulting opportunities for use in teaching, including new developments in visual mapping.

What led to the establishment of a new library space in London specializing in international contemporary drawing? Beyond providing access to collections, how will this research hub support artists practice and scholarship, and encourage deeper engagement from exhibition audiences? This article looks at the development of Outset Study's collections, audiences and events programme, and reflects on successes and challenges faced in the first year.

The fate of the estates (Nachlässe) of visual artists are as varied as the fortunes of the artists themselves.2 It is only the well-known, high value artists with considerable resources who have the means to create their own museum or archive.3 Yet the storage and preservation of the vast remains of artists' estates is an increasingly urgent matter. Artist output has dramatically increased since the middle of the 20th century, as has the awareness of the importance of artists bequests. Artists have often taken matters into their own hands while they are still living. More often though, it is the heirs to an estate who are faced with the task after the artist's death. The immediate family (widow, widower, children) understand the importance of the work and feel a sense of obligation. But the second generation (grandchildren) questions what to do with “all this stuff”? Often the heirs do not have the expertise, understandably, and are overwhelmed by the financial and other costs of appropriate storage for the permanent preservation of the material.4 How to professionally accommodate, develop and make such collections accessible? In the following, several models for the handling and storage of artist estates are presented, with specific reference to the issues of sifting, recording and selection.