Architecture, the focus of this issue, is held to be the ‘mother of the arts’. It is also referred to as the ‘queen of the decorative arts’. But in the family of art libraries and art librarianship, architecture is often a neglected stepchild. So I welcome the invitation extended in this issue of the Art Libraries Journal to the ‘Cinderella of the arts’, and hope that her appearance at the art ball will extend beyond midnight.

Over the past quarter of a century or so that I have been an architectural librarian, I have sometimes wondered why architecture libraries are isolated from their sister libraries in the world of art and design, and why architecture libraries and librarians feel the need to separate themselves from their art and design siblings. Is it because the art community is uncomfortable with architecture? If so, is this because architecture is outside the mainstream of art education or art history teaching? Or is it because architecture libraries are generally part of professional institutes, schools of architecture or architectural firms, whose concerns and affiliations may have more in common with the engineering sciences (civil, structural, materials, environmental), the building and construction industries, urban and landscape design, town and country planning, and estate, project and business management, than with the more scholarly and historical focus of art libraries in museums and universities?

A project to enhance access to architectural drawings and manuscripts has recently begun at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. Two major collections of designs - those in the V&A’s Prints, Drawings and Paintings Collection and those in the Special Collections of the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) - will be housed together at the Museum from 2003. In this article two of the V&A’s curators outline the planning for the move, which involves modifying existing space to provide new accommodation for staff, storage and consultation by the public, and describe the broader partnership between the two institutions, which promises much for the study and appreciation of architecture.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal, devoted to the history and theory of the art of architecture, was founded in 1979 and opened to the public in 1989. It is defined in its mission statement as a museum and study centre, and its Library was conceived and developed by its Founding Director, Phyllis Lambert, to serve both halves of this mission. This article describes some of the ways in which its dual function permeates the Library’s operations and activities. It is our belief that the CCA Library adds value to its collections and services precisely by bridging the old, old gap between the traditional museum library and the traditional research library.

Two of the largest architecture libraries in Spain are in institutions in Catalonia. One of these is the UPC (the Technical University of Catalonia), the home of the library of the ETSAB (the School of Architecture of Barcelona), which is one of the oldest architecture schools in Spain. The other is COAC (the Architects’ Association of Catalonia), which boasts one of the biggest architecture libraries in a professional association in the country. While these two libraries were built up in the 19th century, other architecture libraries have been created in Catalonia in the 20th century, both in schools of architecture and in the branches of COAC.

Originally set up in 1988, ARCLIB has become a lively pressure group involving not only architecture school librarians in the United Kingdom but also those in other European countries and the USA. National conferences have provided an annual focus and these are listed in the appendix, but there have also been active international contacts over the years, the current hosting of the ARCLIB discussion list in Venice being one example. ARCLIB also publishes its own Bulletin, which reports on the Group’s activities and keeps members in contact with one another.

The ABBA (Asociación de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas de Arquitectura, Construcción y Urbanismo) brings together about 50 librarians and 40 libraries of quite different types. There are university libraries, government libraries, and the libraries of associations of architects; there are large libraries with extensive resources, and small libraries with very small budgets. The only thing they have in common is their speciality (architecture, building and town and country planning) and the kind of user they serve (architects and architecture students.

Trade literature can be used as primary source material for the study of subjects ranging from business history to the history of advertising. Historical collections of trade literature exist in museum, academic and special libraries in the UK and in the United States. Collections of current trade literature are also being developed as important resources for users by an increasing number of academic libraries supporting design- or construction-related courses. Many such collections however remain uncatalogued, or only appear in in-house manual catalogues and are therefore largely inaccessible. This ephemeral material appears in a wide variety of formats and media, and can present particular difficulties in terms of organisation and documentation. The ARLIS/UK & Ireland Cataloguing and Classification Committee is currently working on guidelines to help libraries address these problems and encourage the online cataloguing of trade literature collections.

Every museum generates a considerable amount of printed and graphic ephemeral material, which provides first-hand information on its permanent exhibitions and temporary activities. These can be exhibition brochures, didactic material, activity announcements, cards, etc. and they are frequently the only source of direct information on the active life of the organisation which precisely reflects its public image. However, few museums are devoting effort to preserving this material, whose retention is not always guaranteed. This paper aims to establish a classification of the different types of ephemeral publications common in museums (informative, educational, commercial, of internal use, etc). It sets forth an elementary system for dealing with them which, by using the MARC format (in those libraries using a standardised system) or a database in ACCESS (for those lacking one), should result in the establishment of a secure system for storage, retrieval and diffusion of this data.

Artists in Canada is a bilingual union list of documentation files on Canadian artists held by the National Gallery of Canada Library, and by 22 libraries and art galleries across the country. More than 42,700 artists are represented, with biographical information as well as locations for files. Originally compiled manually, Artists in Canada has been automated since the late 1970s and, as well as appearing in print format, has been accessible internationally on the World Wide Web since 1995.