The articles in this issue of the Art Libraries Journal all relate to developments in fine art services in public libraries in the United Kingdom. Denmark and Germany.

Within the United Kingdom the City of Westminster’s Fine Art Library has been in existence for twenty years; the great Mitchell Library in Glasgow opened its Fine Arts Department in 1981; Essex County Library has an innovative and expanding Fine Arts service. Subject specialisation, it would seem, is alive, well and flourishing.

Bradford had the first central library building in this country designed specifically on the subject departmentalised principle. Bradford is also the first to abandon it. The rise and fall of Bradford’s subject departments are charted and reasons are given why they were no longer felt to be appropriate in the 1980s. Some of the disadvantages of subject departments are noted.

The views expressed here are the author’s own and not necessarily those of the City Librarian or his Management Team.

This article outlines the origin and development of picture lending services in Germany and the United Kingdom and explains the cross-fertilisation of ideas between Germany and the United Kingdom which has led to the present spread of collections in both countries. However economic constraints are now affecting the working of existing services and limiting the establishment of new ones, and new methods of financial distribution are necessary.

Some observations on the compilation of a dictionary of artists from the London Borough of Sutton; with an account of sources and methods.

The article, after an introduction giving an outline history of the Mitchell Library, looks at the creation of a specialist arts department within an established collection, makes comparisons between the service in the past and the present, and tries to identify any changes, particularly in patterns of use and readership.

Several years ago, Essex Libraries underwent re-organisation, and at this stage, subject specialist department were formed, an unusual feature within county libraries. This article deals with the basic organisation within the Essex Libraries system, the part played by the Arts subject specialist department, the services offered, its role within LASER, and the advantages that this system is seen as having, particularly in the present times of financial stringency.

First established in 1965, the Fine Art Library at Westminster has been serving its public, both locally and nationally, for twenty years with an expert though small staff in very limited accommodation. Experience has shown that management training as well as subject knowledge is essential in running a specialist library. The possibility of expansion into a custom-built department would exercise the full range of management skills necessary to maximise the resources of staff, budget and subject knowledge.

A consideration of the public library local history and archives departments as a potential resource for information on art and design topics, with special reference to the collections of Wesminster City Libraries.

The art department of the Gladsaxe Bibliotek, near Copenhagen, is one of several art departments in public libraries, and one of the art libraries created in Denmark as a result of the Public Libraries Act of 1964 and two subsequent reports, in 1967 and 1971, on the provision of audiovisual material under the terms of the new Act. In addition to providing books and journals, these art libraries lend slides, posters, and original prints, and mount exhibitions of works of art by local and other artists. The librarians concerned have formed a subsection of the Danish Library Association, the ‘Faggruppen for kunstbibliotekarer’ (known as ‘Kunstfaggruppen’) and these ‘diary pages’originally appeared, in Danish, in the group’s newsletter Medd. Blade no. 3, 1983, pp 7-9. For further reading, see the Art Libraries Journal vol. 6, no. 3, Winter 1981, pp 3-12.