The inter-relationship between art librarians and artists/designers in the public library sector in America has been a reality since the early 20th century when libraries were organized into subject departments. This specialized clientele is eclectic and ranges from novices to the most accomplished artists and includes architects, art directors, illustrators, calligraphers, craftspeople and photographers in addition to painters, sculptors and graphic artists. Materials and services in public art libraries are highly diversified and the literature of other disciplines is also readily available. The increase in art exhibitions and special collections is noted in addition to a new focus on information for career opportunities, art law and the handicapped. Current developments set the stage for the continuing symbiotic relationship between public art librarians and artists/designers into the 21st century.

The PHAROS consortium of fourteen international art historical photo archives is digitizing the over 20 million images (with accompanying documentation) in its combined collections and has begun to construct a common access platform using Linked Open Data and the ResearchSpace software. In addition to resulting in a rich and substantial database of images for art-historical research, the PHAROS initiative supports the development of shared standards for mapping and sharing photo archive metadata, as well as for best practices for working with large digital image collections and conducting computational image analysis. Moreover, alongside their digitization efforts, PHAROS member institutions are considering the kinds of art-historical questions the resulting database of images could be used to research. This article indicates some of the prospective research directions stimulated by modern technologies, with the aim of exploring the epistemological potential of photographic archives and challenging the boundaries between the analogue and the digital.

The information-gathering activities of art historians have been studied from three different perspectives: in terms of the books they use; through their own accounts of their working processes; and by informal, systematic observation, written up as ‘user studies’, by art librarians. While observation implies objectivity, a distance between observer and observed, in practice art librarians are very much involved with the art historian in the work of art history and in the development of its methodologies.

How can an open access publishing and distribution model benefit research in contemporary art? In 2013 Artexte, a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting contemporary art in Canada, launched the e-artexte open access digital repository to offer self-archiving services to publishers, authors and artists in Canadian contemporary art. Although the fine arts community has generally been slow to adopt open access, Canadian contemporary arts publishers, many of whom have small budgets and limited resources, are finding the open access e-artexte repository an effective means of increasing distribution of and access to their publications.

The study of art history in Japan, and its documentation, have developed since the end of the 19th century, very largely (especially prior to World War II) as a national project dependent on national institutions, development of a kind which, while making considerable achievements possible, has been subject to certain limitations and which has failed to produce co-operative networks involving museums and art libraries which now exist in greater variety. In particular, some categories of material tend not to be acquired by either museums or libraries. These are problems which must be resolved if art history scholarship is to continue to flourish in Japan, and if Japan is to contribute as fully as it might to scholarship worldwide.

A paper presented to the Art Libraries Round Table at the IFLA General Conference, Manila, 1980.

This paper describes and evaluates the information-seeking behaviour of young people in the virtual environment. Data are drawn from a JISC/BL funded project on the future scholar and a seven-year study of the virtual scholar conducted by CIBER at University College London. Hundreds of thousands of young people, mainly students, from all over the globe, are covered in the log analyses. On the basis of these data, the characteristics of their ‘digital footprints’ are drawn, demonstrating the huge paradigm shift that has occurred in the information seeking of young scholars. The results are surprising, disturbing and challenging and the author concludes with a discussion of how information professionals and the arts and humanities community in general might best meet young people’s information needs.

The post of Academic Librarian for Art and Design was established at Leicester Polytechnic in 1973, as part of a team of tutor librarians having no library duties other than reader instruction. Several kinds and degrees of instruction have been attempted, ranging from formal lectures to the ‘point-of-need’ method, and most have been found to have both advantages and disadvantages. Interest can be aroused by drawing attention to the variety of materials, access to which is gained through familiarity with bibliographic tools. The tutor librarian’s role implies involvement in the presentation of the library by means of guiding and publications; but when the tutor librarian’s is a separate post, additional to those professional library staff who are responsible for running the library, difficulties and conflict may be unavoidable.

For many years slide libraries in higher education institutions in the UK grew steadily in size as they accommodated the needs of new and expanding art and design courses. Although some slide librarians acquired new slides by photographing works of art in museums and art galleries, and most bought slides of the traditional art history canon from commercial publishers and art galleries, the largest proportion of these ever growing slide collections was made up of slides produced by copy photography, using slide film to photograph images taken from books, journals and exhibition catalogues. Changes in UK copyright law in 1988 made this illegal and jeopardised the ability of lecturers to present the visual material they needed for their courses. Slide librarians were forced to consider ways of getting around the law. A licence scheme ultimately emerged as the answer, but one that has its detractors and critics.

Aby Warburg used a system of screens, wooden frames covered with fabric, upon which he displayed photographs. He could compare images, manipulate them in different arrangements, and order them in support of a visual argument. The computer and the video screen allow present day art historians to contemplate the creation of a much larger and more sophisticated version of Warburg’s screens in an ideal network of images and data. Images of works of art will be identified by basic information and accompanied with all the relevant information of a full catalogue entry. Correctly formulated this information can be retrieved in various ways to allow for making numerous connections between works of art and revealing a variety of relationships between them. Each work can thus be studied within a visual and historical context or compared with works of art sharing similar characteristics from widely different cultures and periods. The number of works of art existing in the world is very large, and the information which may be recorded about them is immense. Forming the ideal network is a considerable undertaking and one that will take the help and co-operation of the whole art historical community.

Over the past thirty years, the artist’s book has inspired comment from critics of disparate disciplines from writers on art, bibliography and librarianship, all keen to bring the artist’s book under the writer’s explanatory gaze and assimilate it into critical discourse. As a cross-disciplinary field of activity, it is thus open to constant reconfiguration from the respective voices of the practitioner, the critic, the librarian and the bibliographer. The definitions and categorisations offered by these writers often belie their respective dispositions, their training and the expectations of the audiences for whom they write.

Libraria is a small business which provides a visiting library service to architectural practices. Although practices vary, their information needs are similar, and are met from the several categories employed by Libraria to organise information materials: technical literature, trade literature, samples, consultants and contractors, company information, fine art and reference, maps, journals, and in-house material. Information from these categories must be available as required to support successive stages in the building design process from inception to completion. Library services in the construction industry have to provide the right information at the right time, without being a drain on the resources of practices which can only survive as profitable businesses; the librarian must be seen to be an ever-helpful source of practical information.

Art libraries acquire a large amount of ephemeral material which creates a unique resource on the history of contemporary art. Librarians have to decide what should be retained, how it should be stored, and how the material can best be accessed. Increasingly there is pressure to digitise in order to promote collections, but how effective this process is in terms of ephemeral material remains a real question. A survey of prominent collections in London and New York has helped to inform future plans for the ephemera held by the library at Chelsea College of Art & Design.

As the world of information resources becomes more and more digital, what is the role of special collections in libraries? This paper highlights their growing importance as unique and distinctive assets in an increasingly levelled landscape. It also stresses the value of opening up access to these collections through large-scale digitisation, reflecting on the role the profession should play in leading that work.

In the last half-century exhibition catalogues have completely changed in appearance. Fifty years ago they were usually small pamphlets, which often simply listed the works of art in a show. Today catalogues are frequently substantial monographs, generally profusely illustrated. But a more complex change has also taken place, in line with major developments in the museum and exhibition world. This change can be illustrated by looking at some of the features of catalogues today, such as their production costs, function, and distribution.

Total provision of art literature almost certainly requires international co-operation. It depends too on effective and systematic coverage at the national level, not only of traditional printed books and periodicals but also audiovisual media, microforms, manuscripts and ‘grey literature’. National provision must allow for geographical, political and economic factors and patterns of usage. Various recommendations are made to stimulate discussion of a possible British system.

Library work now has a role to play when it comes to decolonisation. This article outlines what Goldsmiths Library, University of London is doing, through the Liberate our Library initiative, to diversify and decolonise its collections and practices against the backdrop of worldwide movements for education and social justice led by both students and academics to challenge the dominance of the ‘Westernised university’.2

Examples of how we are doing this work are explained using critical librarianship as our guide, whilst recognising that we are still developing expertise in this evolving field of practice. This decolonisation work also uses critical race theory (CRT) as a means to dismantle racial inequality and its impact on higher education.

Here, I would like to acknowledge the excellent and inspirational content of ALJ, Critical Librarianship: Special Issue (v.44, no.2) and I see this article as an ongoing companion piece.

Goldsmiths Library's liberation work endeavours to empower its users with critical thinking and study skills whilst conducting their research using hierarchical systems and resources which in themselves are in the process of being decolonised.

Decolonising a library collection and a profession must of course always begin or at least happen in tandem with the self, through a process that Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o describes as ‘decolonising the mind.’3

The libraries of the national museums in Spain were established during the 19th and 20th centuries. Their holdings are the result of a long tradition of collecting, and together constitute an invaluable bibliographic legacy. With the objective of bringing to light and publicising this rich heritage, these libraries have developed an art libraries network, BIMUS, whose first achievement has been to create an online union catalogue. The project will continue to develop in stages, and its eventual aim is to help the Spanish museum libraries become a reference point for research into art history and the cultural heritage.

Approximately 6,000 current periodicals may be considered relevant to the art library, though no one art library can provide more than a fraction of these. Aids to the selection of an essential ‘core’ collection include specialized bibliographies; for access to periodicals outside its means or scope the art library must rely on cooperation with other libraries. Micro-publishing can play a vital part in facilitating global access. to art periodicals; meanwhile the art librariun can make a more informed selection of titles for a particular library, by analysing the needs of the library’s actual and potential users, and by studying what has been written on the history of art periodicals and of their usefulness. Excerpts from a paper presented to the ARLIS International Conference on art periodicals at the University of Sussex on April 9th.

The vast expanse and volatility of art ephemera based on the World Wide Web pose significant threats to the completeness of the art historical record. Towards its mission to enhance the resources available for current and future research through collaboration, the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) collects, preserves, and provides access to art ephemera born in digital formats native to the web. It leverages its member institutions’ collecting strengths and resources to establish a permanently sustainable web archiving programme. This article introduces NYARC's web archiving practices at the principal stages in a typical web archive's lifecycle, describes how each benefit from collaboration among its member libraries and external programme partners, and identifies opportunities for further art libraries and consortia to participate in this important effort to preserve at-risk art historical resources.

The ideal of a single, national art library is no more practicable than that of a single national library. The alternative is to regard all of a nation’s art libraries as comprising the national art library, taking advantage of their diversity and of their provision of a range of access points and policies. This requires effective co-ordination, preferably combining maximum co-operation with a minimum of centralisation, and including the rotation of specific responsibilities among participating libraries. An example of such a confederation of art libraries is represented by the network of art libraries within the Research Libraries Group (RLG) in the USA. A new RLG plan for achieving efficient co-operative cataloguing of exhibition catalogues demonstrates how a confederation of libraries can work together to act as a national art library, more effectively than would be possible for a single ‘monolithic’ library.