Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:42:11.804Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How to run a picture library for pleasure (and sometimes profit)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2016

Hilary Evans*
Affiliation:
Mary Evans Picture Library
Get access

Abstract

Picture libraries exist in many shapes and sizes, within the broad categories of public collections, private and usually specialised collections, and photoagencies. Users of picture libraries range from students to professional picture researchers, though even the latter may need guidance. The picture librarian combines the roles of collectors and custodian while also making the collection available for use. The Mary Evans Picture Library, which comprises some two million prints mounted and filed under subject headings, provides ‘visual documentation of the past’ up to the late 1920s, with an emphasis on social conditions. Cross-references and photographic duplicates (retained for permanent reference) are interfiled with the prints, most of which are available for loan and any of which may be copied. The organisation of the library corresponds to its users’ needs rather than to a rigid system.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

(1) MUSEUMS Association Information Sheet no.20, 1975. Every librarian should read it.Google Scholar
(2) Evans, Hilary and Mary, , and Nelki, Andra. The Picture Researchers Handbook. David and Charles, 1975.Google Scholar
(3) If I have made the Picture Librarian a ‘he’ and the Researcher/ Visitor a ‘she’, this is done in the interests of clarity and implies no sex prejudice. I have not forgotten that Mary Evans, my boss, is a she and that I, habitual frequenter of the London Library, am a he.Google Scholar
(4) Evans, Hilary and Mary, . Sources of Illustration 1500-1900. Adams and Dart, 1972.Google Scholar
(5) Brochure available on request from the Mary Evans Picture Library, 1 Tranquil Vale, London SE3 0BU.Google Scholar