From 1973 until early 1992, the Creswell Library of Islamic Art and Architecture, first established at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1957, evolved from a restricted research library dominated by its original owner, K. A. C. Creswell, into a teaching and research branch library integrated within the university’s library system. International politics and university-wide library needs delayed improvements, but the Creswell collection was fully catalogued and interfiled when the new Main Library opened in 1982. As use of the Creswell Library accelerated, stacks nominally closed were opened to faculty and trusted students until standard procedures resumed after a 1989 budget and staff increase, anticipating the library’s 1992 incorporation in AUC’s new Rare Book and Special Collections Library.

A marked increase in MA degrees awarded in the discipline and in use by visiting researchers during the library’s final years testifies to its effectiveness in supporting the study of Islamic art. Assessments of the library’s overall contribution, however, must balance the value of a core collection of beautiful books, little used, against an incalculable loss: the records of Cairo buildings no longer extant that would have resulted from the larger student group a more accessible library would have encouraged.

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).

In addition to an art library which is part of the public library service, the city of Leeds, in the north of England, is the home of two universities and an art college, and of the Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, in each of which significant art library collections can be found. Each library has cooperative links, if only of a limited nature, with one of the other five, but cooperation involving all five libraries is lacking. As a first step, regular meetings are suggested; other possible developments might include an information booklet, a periodicals union list, a Conspectus review of collections, and a cooperative acquisitions policy.

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.