The Brooklyn Museum’s collection of Islamic art, gathered from early in the 20th century, represents the full range of Islamic artistic production, with objects dating from the earliest periods of Islam through the 20th century, from Spain and India, and executed in a variety of media. An extensive library collection of over 5,000 titles has been developed since the establishment of the Museum Libraries in 1923. The collection was enhanced by the acquisition of the personal library of Charles Edwin Wilbour, and by the bequeathing of the library of Charles K. Wilkinson, and it continues to benefit from the generosity of foundation and individual support. The Library is open to the public by appointment, and bibliographic records of its collection are entered on RLIN.

Optical videodisc technology is a very effective tool for art research, archival preservation and the presentation of visual materials. In fact, this new technology has the potential to revolutionise the current methods of conducting research and the storage and retrieval of art documentation. There are, however, many issues concerning videodisc technology which should be identified before disc can become a practical reality for the art world.

This paper outlines:

(1) How a videodisc works, including specific advantages and limitations of the technology for the field of art librarianship, and, (2) How the videodisc may be applied to visual resources and art documentation from the collection manager’s point of view. Various art related videodisc projects completed between 1980 and 1983 will be used as illustrations, and the videodisc done at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) will be used as a case study.

The paper was delivered to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries, Munich, 1983.

A time traveller visiting a British art school library in the 1840s, the 1970s, and the 1990s, would recognise a significant degree of continuity linking the library of the 1840s with that of the 1970s, but would be startled by the changes which have taken place in the last 20 years. Rapid change has resulted from several factors: increasing numbers of students; a growth in the demand from the public for art information; changes in the content and delivery of the curriculum; and not least, new technologies. This rapid pace of change is destined to continue into the foreseeable future, so much so that, instead of adapting to change bit by bit, librarians need to envisage and plan the new art libraries of tomorrow.

A consideration of the public library local history and archives departments as a potential resource for information on art and design topics, with special reference to the collections of Wesminster City Libraries.

Given the complexity and diversity of resources in art history, the research student needs a thorough and systematic programme to guide him through the range of information sources from catalogues and indexes to esoteric and elusive art works and individuals. Such a programme is described in detail and also a survey made of the literature on bibliographic instruction in art history.

Special thanks are extended to Phillip Heagy for bibliographic assistance and manuscript preparation and to Sue Ramage for manuscript review.

The loan and hire of contemporary original works of art has a long but littleresearched history. Its recent development, in and outside public libraries (particularly in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Israel) began essentially after 1945. Its nature and scope is strongly influenced by contemporary art. Art loans are worth promoting because art plays a lesser role in our cultural life compared to music and literature, because of the gulf between contemporary art and the public at large, as a means of securing and developing the role of the artist in society, and to foster discrimination and visual literacy in an age dominated by images of all kinds.

Access to original works of art is a human right which cannot be adequately provided for by art galleries. Loan collections of original works of art should be thought of as a logical extension of the lending, by libraries, of books and media. In Sweden over sixty libraries include collections of this kind. (A translation of an article which first appeared in Biblioteksbladet 1976, volume 61 no.4 pp. 56-60).

The Frances L. Loeb Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Design has served the needs of the teaching faculty and students of the University, and of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning design scholars worldwide, since the beginning of the architecture program in 1900. During that period the library has had two different homes, and the collections have grown through a combination of purchased acquisitions and gifts from faculty and alumni of the School. The library has been an integral part of the School throughout its history, working closely with faculty and students to support design education.

Artists’ books have been collected at the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design for over 40 years. They include early multiples, conceptual books, fine press books, livres d’artistes, unique books, limited edition handmade books, books as sculptural objects, artists’ archives and ephemera. With between three and eight classes and individual appointments each week, artists’ books have become important teaching tools, fostering creativity among students, faculty and outside researchers. How do they speak to the creative process on so many levels? What is it that makes these resources so compelling?

In Japan, many different organisations have played a part in creating the digital content that we now see being shared on the internet. Starting in the 1980s, developments in digital cultural heritage took place mainly in five kinds of institution: museums, libraries, archives, university and research institutes, plus the world of business. Museums and libraries played a leading role in the 1980s, and they were joined in the 1990s by universities and commercial enterprises, which developed digital content in a variety of ways. In the 2000s archival institutions became involved, and museums, libraries and archives began to form networks to enable seamless retrieval of digital cultural heritage. In the 2010s, the focus moved to the sharing of data and specifically the need to establish a common approach for the exchange of metadata for the ‘Semantic Web’. Creating content for tablet devices also became important, as did the question of standardising technology. The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 brought a keen awareness of the need to create digital records to preserve and share memories of disasters.

Libraries and other information providers in the visual arts have had to adapt to an environment of changing research patterns, due to the widespread adoption of information technologies for personal use, the blurring of disciplinary boundaries, and shifting notions of geographical representation. As a small and independent arts organization, Artexte must navigate the obstacles and challenges raised by this dynamic environment. To do so, it has had to take into consideration the relevance of its original purpose – to focus on contemporary Canadian art within a national arts community. How can Artexte become more active in bringing Canadian art practices and critical discourses to larger, international networks? This article looks at the factors that define the current situation, and the ways in which Artexte bridges the gap between ‘local’ and ‘global’ contexts.

The musée du quai Branly, dedicated to the arts and civilisations of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, has been open since 20 June 2006. Its holdings came from two pre-existing museums, and also from a number of new acquisitions. The museum’s library conserves and enhances the value of three heritage collections – the documents in the library itself, those in the drawings, engravings and photographs collection and the archive pieces and documents about the collections – and a miscellany of users is welcomed to its three dedicated research spaces, from museum visitors to internationally renowned scholars. An ambitious policy has led it to define and develop tools for consulting the collections, and to create a virtual collection in the form of a documentary web portal, through which the museum diffuses its research and heritage documents on the internet. The archives and the collections documentation described below perfectly illustrate how this works.

Video collections have been part of library holdings for several decades, but developing and managing these collections presents a number of challenges. This is the case particularly for artists’ film and video, and this article attempts to identify the issues involved and to offer some practical guidance, drawing on the experience of collection development and management at Chelsea College of Art and Design Library, and across the libraries of University of the Arts London and elsewhere.

This article provides an overview of the status quo with regard to collecting and preserving born-digital cultural heritage objects in the Netherlands. Since there, as elsewhere, the cultural heritage sector is still grappling with the realities of web 2.0, the article also offers some more speculative thoughts on where web 2.0 may take us, as well as some practical suggestions for the next steps cultural heritage organisations could take.

The New Brunswick illustration index is an index to the illustrations in the Legislative Library’s New Brunswick Collection. The illustrations include photographs, engravings, woodcuts, etc. and each is described in a database entry comprised of ten distinct fields. The project, begun in 1989, is not yet complete. The Index is designed to make the unique New Brunswick Collection more accessible.

‘Universal availability’ of art publications, which depends on effective national coverage, cannot be left to chance; within particular countries much depends on co-ordinated or complementary acquisitions by art libraries and other libraries too, while at national, regional, and international levels there is need to ensure that no areas or categories of art are neglected, and to provide for the redressing of imbalances.

Although official censorship in the Soviet Union ceased over ten years ago, the effects in art and art libraries are still felt. Censored books were marked with a hexagon and relegated to closed stacks, which for many years were off limits to the public and library staff alike. Some of the banned material in the All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature is analysed here in an attempt to establish the reason why certain items were seen by the authorities as too harmful to be acceptable for general circulation. The fate of the second “enemy” perceived by the Soviet censors, the original works of art and architecture, is also described.

User education is a field of activity in which there are a number of problems that would benefit from detailed study, particularly because of its multidisciplinary nature. Such research must be initiated, reported upon, and not least communicated to librarians in the field who may subsequently be able to implement it.

(The text of a paper presented at the ARLIS Seminar on User Education held at Leeds Polytechnic, 7 – 8 April, 1978.)