Sometimes I wonder if I am in the right society.

Just after the inauguration of ARLIS, when I was still thinking about joining, there appeared in the ARLIS Newsletter (nos. 2 and 4) two short articles which suggested to me the sort of society ARLIS might become. Written by Frank Hatt, they were called ‘Is your toolkit really necessary?’ and ‘Toolkits again’. The author took the information needs of library users to be the art librarian’s first priority; he dismissed a good many bibliographical tools in our field and called for investigation by ARLIS into exactly what the needs of users of art libraries are. He was thinking on the lines of a cooperative user research project based on case studies, presumably to be published in the Newsletter.

The Times Literary Supplement on March 21st 1975 printed an article by you entitled ‘Fashions in fashion history’. Subsequently you have said that your aim in publishing that piece was ‘to try to persuade publishers to put out some useful material’, such as annotated transcriptions of important inventories listing items of dress, and a series of books dealing with changes in fashion in particular places at particular times. What do you see as the major gaps in the literature of fashion at the present time?

The Costume and Fashion Research Centre at Bath complements the Museum of Costume in the same city, providing a study collection of costume and a library of primary illustrative and written source material and of relevant reference works. It is open, for reference purposes, to students, and the public. Similar centres could usefully be developed to complement costume collections elsewhere.

The Archive of ICOGRADA, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations, provides a reference centre and a hire service based on a collection of original examples of graphic design, slides, films, and recordings of lectures on design. The Archive is housed at Bolton College of Art and Design, Lancashire.

A personal choice of European and American booksellers who specialise in out-of-print material on the fine and applied arts.