Art libraries have a vital role to play in documenting and disseminating the dynamic cultural identities of Latin American and Caribbean peoples. In Havana, some eight libraries and information centres share the task of documenting the art of Cuba itself, and of other Latin American and Caribbean countries. However, their collections are under-resourced and, in most cases, out-of-date; automation is overdue, and there is an urgent need to create a union catalogue and to develop a network of cooperation. (The text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1994).

After the democratic elections of April 1994 in South Africa, a new Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology was established, the first of its kind in the history of the country. The Minister has appointed an Arts and Culture Task Group (ACTAG) to formulate proposals for a new arts and culture policy, after wide and intensive consultation, workshops and public hearings, taking into account numerous submissions from the arts community, professional bodies, the academic sphere and civil society. The proposals, contained in a Report presented to the Minister on 31st July 1995, centred on an envisaged National Arts and Culture Council, complemented by three autonomous bodies: a National Film Institute, a National Heritage Council and a National Council for Libraries and Information.

ARLIS/UK & Ireland can be proud of the achievements of its first 25 years, but might benefit both from re-examining its objectives and by broadening its constituency. The fact that the National Art Library (NAL) is now fulfilling a role commensurate with that title is welcome indeed, but art libraries should be wary of depending too much on the leadership of a national library. The Visual Arts Library and Information Plan (VALIP) offers a not-to-be-missed opportunity for ARLIS and the NAL together to ensure the continuing development of art librarianship in Britain into the foreseeable future; the absence of a national bibliographic database, however, must be a handicap to future progress, while the state of art provision in public libraries is a matter of concern. ARLIS is working too exclusively for specialists; as it approaches the year 2000 its biggest challenge may be the needs of people at large. (The text of a paper presented at the ARLIS/UK & Ireland Members’ Day at the Tate Gallery, London, on the 8th November 1994).

Art museums can help to promote art in society, but not all artists have their work selected for permanent collections or temporary exhibitions, and museums may be isolated from society. In Europe and North America, the primary function of museum libraries is to serve the parent institution, thereby serving the wider community only indirectly. In South Africa, where there are comparatively fewer museums, libraries, and publications concerned with the visual arts, and where there are so many disadvantaged people, it is vital that special collections such as the South Africa National Gallery (SANG) Library collection are made accessible in the widest possible sense and that museum library information programmes should be directed externally, as well as internally to the museum staff.

Art libraries are plural entities in that they have multiple functions and serve a variety of users. In the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, academic art libraries provide visual resources for artists and art students; they also provide a wide range of texts for students of increasingly specialised branches of the history of art and design and of ‘visual studies’. Their librarians should collaborate with academic colleagues to develop the library to serve the institution’s needs; at the same time the institution should recognise the role of the library. The broader spectrum represented by the ‘new art history’ challenges the art library to widen its scope, although this must be done through networking as well as by means of collection development. Scholars realise that they must generally expect to have to go to the major libraries and archives for primary source material, although smaller art libraries often have valuable materials and some scholars might be encouraged to share their own research collections through the libraries of their institutions. Information technology has become the key to tracing material, but is no substitute for direct interaction with the materials themselves.

The case of the Central Art Library in the Cape Town City Libraries illustrates the role of an art reference collection within a lending library. Such a collection should be wide ranging in scope, catering for the needs of students, professionals, and the general public, and must be built up by means of careful and informed selection, with the needs of the local community in mind. Representation of art worldwide should be complemented with documentation of the arts of the library’s own locality and nation. The Central Art Library’s reference section includes two student collections, and a number of special collections, including a collection devoted to African art, a comics collection, an image bank, and a collection of pamphlets and ephemera. Expanding the reference collection can be an effective strategy for serving the needs of the public despite a standstill or shrinking budget.

Latin American culture is very rich, yet there is insufficient documentation on Latin American art, and much of the documentation which does exist is not adequately covered by the major art indexes. A number of magazines have set out, especially since the 1940s, to disseminate information about Latin American art, but most have been short-lived. The LATINOARTE project, based in the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), aims to develop and to network a database including citations to documentation available in 62 libraries and information centres inside and outside Latin America. Already, some 1,500 records are available on contemporary Latin American art. (The edited text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1994.)

AVAIL came into being as a means of connecting more or less isolated professionals working with visual arts collections, ARLIS/UK & Eire (as it then was) having failed to meet the needs of colleagues in Ireland. The idea of an association for Ireland was hatched at a conference organised by ARLIS/UK with the IFLA Section of Art Libraries in April, 1992; AVAIL was subsequently inaugurated the following October. AVAIL is inter-national, in that it represents the whole island of Ireland; it also represents the broad spectrum of visual arts information management, not just librarianship. As one of its first tasks AVAIL is preparing a directory of visual arts information providers in Ireland. AVAIL’S very existence has apparently persuaded the Department of Library and Information Studies at University College Dublin to incorporate some specialist art training as an option in their programme of education for librarianship, and AVAIL – perhaps in cooperation with ARLIS/UK & Ireland – plans to meet the training needs of its members. AVAIL has adopted as its aims not only to provide a cooperative network for the provision and exchange of visual arts information, but also to ensure preservation and conservation of all Irish visual arts materials. AVAIL is working closely with ARLIS/UK & Ireland, and a joint conference of the two bodies is to take place in Dublin and Belfast in 1995. (This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the 25th Anniversary Conference of ARLIS/UK & Ireland, London 7th-10th April 1994).

The Department of Latin American Art at the Phoenix Art Museum was established on 1st January 1992, and the Librarian of the Museum accepted the additional role of Curator of the Department. Although the Museum has always collected Mexican art, the new Department is concerned with all of Latin America and especially with the 20th century. Similarly, the Library, which has long-established interests in Mexican art, is now expanding its coverage to reflect the scope of the new Department. Grant support has been forthcoming, and Library purchasing has been enhanced by the generosity of a private donor and by a strategy of using a proportion of each exhibition budget for Library acquisitions. Specialist suppliers have been identified, but it has also been necessary to travel. Better networking is needed between professionals in Latin America and the USA; exchange programs have the potential to be mutually beneficial. (The text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1994).

Cooperation between libraries is time-consuming, but is both ‘worthwhile and essential. Scottish research libraries commenced active cooperation in 1977: the Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries now has 15 active members. More recently, libraries in Scotland have been encouraged to work together following the creation of the Scottish Library and Information Council. The National Library has a key role to play, but in partnership with other libraries rather than invariably taking the lead. Cooperation between Scottish art libraries can be traced back to the 1950s and to the development, under the auspices of the National Library, of a union catalogue of art books in Edinburgh. This project is being extended and it will eventually become a national database. The group of libraries responsible for the project has taken on a wider role and an expanded membership as the Scottish Visual Arts Group, one of several subject groups under the umbrella of the Scottish Confederation of University & Research Libraries. The Group will work closely with the Scottish Library and Information Council, and with ARLIS/UK & Ireland in the wider framework of the United Kingdom. (This article is the revised text of a paper presented to the ARLIS/UK & Ireland 25th Anniversary Conference in London, 7th-10th April 1994).

The Michaelis Art Library, part of the Reference Division of the Johannesburg Public Library Service, originated with a collection of books purchased for the planned Johannesburg Art Gallery in the 1920s. Temporarily and then permanently housed in the Public Library, the collection became the nucleus of a growing art library, the largest public art library in South Africa. In recent years usage of the library declined as a result of political tensions, but then increased in parallel with a surge of vitality in the arts which heralded the end of apartheid and the emergence of democracy. During 1995 the Michaelis Art Library was due to move into Johannesburg’s central library building.

Architects are often unable or unwilling to explore the information which is available to them, and their failure to do so limits the social value of their work. At the Welsh School of Architecture, architects of tomorrow are given training in information research, and practising architects have been given similar training through Continuing Professional Development courses. Architecture libraries have a vital role to play in encouraging and enabling architects to undertake adequate research, utilising the potential of information technology to provide ready access to a widening range of networked information.

The Johannesburg Art Gallery opened in 1915. A collection of books intended for the Gallery, but housed elsewhere pending the completion of the building, became the separate Michaelis Art Library; the Gallery gradually formed its own library, for the use of the curators. In 1986 the Gallery Library was accommodated in a new wing. Selection for the Library has reflected the Gallery’s diverse collecting activities. Latterly, the Library has worked closely with the Gallery’s education department, and as a result its resources have been made available to the wider community. In 1994 the Library was given a major art slide collection by the Rand Afrikaans University; in the same year, it received funding for the computerisation of its catalogue, which will be accessible through SABINET. Work is in progress on an index of South African art.

ARLIS Norge was conceived at the IFLA Conference at Munich in August, 1983, and held its first annual meeting in Oslo on 25th January 1984. Its membership includes all art librarians and art libraries in Norway. Meetings are held regularly, and courses and study visits are also organised from time to time. The newsletter ARLIS Nytt is published four times a year. ARLIS Norge participates in ARLIS Norden and in the IFLA Section of Art Libraries, and actively fosters international relations. During the last five years, ARLIS Norge has established a bibliographic database on Norwegian art history, KUNSTBIB. Current and future concerns include art resources in public libraries, education for art librarianship, and the need for a Norwegian thesaurus of art terms. (This is an English translation of an article which was published in Norwegian in ARLIS Nytt 1993 no. 3/4 p. 1-4).

Asked about how artists use libraries, art librarians confirm that artists gather ideas from a wide spectrum of subjects and sources, beyond the scope of the art library; they also need images and other, specific, information which art libraries often can supply. Their approach is typically exploratory and intuitive; they are compulsive browsers, but are likely to be impatient of catalogs and only occasional users of standard references tools. They expect a lot of help from specialist librarians. Art libraries serving artists generally provide access to a wide range of images, and invariably house their collections on open stacks. Photocopying, including color copying, is an essential service, and other visual and ‘studio’ facilities may also be provided. As more and more visual and other relevant information is made available through electronic networks, art libraries can provide artists with assisted, convenient access to it.

The work of Latin American women artists is not adequately documented, nor is it sufficiently recognised in the major art reference works and bibliographies which thus fail to facilitate access even to documentation which is available in the USA. The author has been working towards a bibliographic apparatus that will bring together readily available sources on 20th century Latin American women artists. Much material has been found in the Art Exhibition Catalog collection in the Arts Library at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Two Cuban artists, Ana Mendieta and María Martínez-Cañas, are just two of some 200 artists from 20 countries represented in this project. (The revised text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1995).