The use of wood engraving as a method of graphic reproduction for books, periodicals and newspapers continued for a surprisingly long time after the development of photographic methods. End-grain boxwood engraving was a truly Victorian phenomenon and an understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, versatility and limitations of this technique may perhaps best be reached through an exploration of its commercial decline. The period 1860–1900 saw a combination of competing technical, economic and aesthetic demands influencing the development of illustrative processes and eventually led to the end of commercial wood engraving. A form of engraving closer to Bewick's original interpretation of the craft re-emerged through the arts and crafts movement and the establishment of private presses during the inter-war period.

How do artists, designers, architects and craftspeople seek and deploy information in support of their practice? It is a question that is of central importance to the learning and teaching that art libraries provide, yet one that has also been subject to much debate within the historical and contemporary literature. An attentive reading of this literature reveals three fundamental metanarratives, each underpinned by a particular epistemology, and it is these narratives that have then informed how institutions construct, embed and assess the teaching of information skills to their readers. Only by critically evaluating the literature is it possible to resituate our own practice and that of our respective institutions within a paradigm that is most appropriate for our particular contexts. It is also possible to identify gaps in our collective professional understanding, in the hope of signposting avenues of research potential for the future.

‘Inspiration’ is a concept that comes up frequently in the Library and Information Science literature on artists and designers. But what do we mean by ‘inspiration’? This article discusses a selection of the psychological research on creativity and inspiration, as well as four information behaviour theories that help in finding inspiration - browsing, information encountering, satisficing, and serendipity.

As project manager of the Art Discovery Group Catalogue project, and on behalf of the artlibraries.net committee, Geert-Jan Koot explains the development of the Art Discovery Group Catalogue. This discovery service powered by WorldCat is a new, separate project developed by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in Europe for art libraries, which became officially available on May 1st 2014. The project has been accepted within the international Future of Art Bibliography (FAB) initiative of the Getty Research Institute as its bibliographic component. The fact that the system is being developed in Europe provides an excellent equilibrium between Europe and America within the project. Following the invitation to participate, over 80 libraries have so far expressed interest, of which 60 have joined the catalogue. This project is a major step in one of the FAB goals of making art bibliographical information available worldwide through collaboration.

Leaving a 200-year-old building that was never meant to house a library for a 21st-century facility that strives to address the library’s future needs for 25 years doesn’t seem like a daunting task. But mix together sentimental attachments, institutional idiosyncrasies, federal government review of a private building, historic landmark status, and the administrative merger of four library collections into a single library, and life gets interesting – especially when your architect is Robert Venturi, Mr. ‘Learning from Las Vegas’.

In June 2006, just a year ago, in Paris – between the Seine and the Eiffel Tower – a new museum opened. The musée du quai Branly is dedicated to non-European arts and civilisations. At the heart of this museum is a médiathèque.

Because artists’ books can be expensive to buy and to keep, institutions need to have a clearly articulated rationale for collecting them. This could range from documenting the history of art, and contemporary art in particular, to a survey of how artists have used the book format to explore their ideas. This latter approach would support the use of artists’ books in practical workshops leading to the creation of yet further artists’ books.

The Union list of art, architecture and design serials, an online database of periodicals on fine and applied arts, film and television held by academic, public, national and special libraries throughout the UK and Ireland, has been some ten years in the making and work is still progressing. In autumn 2000 funding was obtained to allow for greater progress on this critical research tool, extending the coverage of participating libraries and enhancing the bibliographical records. However the work of increasing the level of participation in the Union list has largely been taken forward by direct approaches to individual institutions and by July 2002 there will be over 60 participating libraries as well as fuller bibliographic citations.

Based on the acceptance of a future of continuing and accelerating change, this paper looks at the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental issues which impact on us as art librarians, and looks back to see what lessons might be learned to help us deal with a future we cannot predict with any certainty.

In general terms, this paper is about the possibilities newly available to art historians, because of the new cheapness, of computing, and the problems which still exist in the areas of data and image storage, retrieval and display. First it tries to assess the technology from a layman’s point of view, then ventures into the contentious matter of how many art historians (in these days of reduced funding) are either able or willing to take advantage (if there are advantages) of new technology. Threading throughout the paper are doubts about whether the use of computers can or will advance the study of the subject (as opposed to making that study easier), and about whether the finance for some of the hardware mentioned could ever be raised by any non-scientific department.

CADENS is a project based at the Institute of Art History at the University of Nijmegen. The intention is to provide comprehensive access to information on contemporary art contained in all Dutch 19th century art exhibition catalogues, by means of a computer database. Two publications, a directory of artists and a keyword index, are envisaged.

Art history in the Netherlands is supported by a number of art libraries in addition to museum libraries, among them the Royal Library at The Hague, the libraries of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science, both at Amsterdam, university libraries, and libraries of Dutch establishments abroad. The combined art collections of these libraries are considerable; access, however, may be facilitated by the Project for Integrated Catalogue Automation (PICA) which aims to improve on the diversity of existing catalogues.

The Internet is a worldwide network of electronic networks which is growing rapidly. Access to resources is facilitated by a number of ‘systems’, including Gopher and World Wide Web. Improvements in the organisation of and access to Internet resources are certain to be developed, and librarians may have a rok to play. Meanwhile libraries are involved in introducing users to different kinds of information resources including those available on the Internet. Art librarians should be aware in particular of five sites which are useful starting points foi looking at art resources in the Internet: ArtSource, Art Navigator, ArtWorlc Online, World Arts Resources, and Fine Art Forum Online.

A selection of ‘avant-garde’ journals, from the early 20th century onwards, which have included architectural material. The journals are grouped into countries (which appear in alphabetical order), and are then arranged chronologically by date first published. Part 1 covers journals from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary and Italy. The journals are described by a number of contributors denoted by their initials: A.B. (Antoine Baudin); J.G. (Jacques Gubler); M.D.G. (Manolo De Giorgi); B.H. (Brian Henson); I.P. (Isabella Pezzini); F.R. (Franco Raggi); P.G.T. (Piero G. Tanca).

The article is the translation of a survey ‘La rete delle riviste’ which first appeared in Rassegna, no. 12, December 1982 - a special issue entitled ‘Architettura nelle riviste d’avanguardia’.

Asia Art Archive was established in 2000 in Hong Kong to document and secure the multiple recent histories of contemporary art in the region. Built through a systematic programme of research and information gathering, it is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading public collections of primary and secondary source material about contemporary art in Asia, comprising hundreds of thousands of physical and digital items, searchable via its online catalogue. A growing selection of digitised material is now also available in the Collection Online.

The Union Française des Arts du Costume, founded in 1948, has been housed since 1986 in the new Musée des Arts de la Mode, and comprises collections of garments and accessories and of complementary documentation. Its Centre de Documentation, open to all, includes a library and archival collections of drawings, prints, photographs, and publicity material; a Centre de Consultation du vidéodisque facilitates access to both garments and documents while removing the need for rare and fragile materials to be handled. A videodisc on 20th century fashion has been available since 1987; a second videodisc is devoted to the 18th and 19th centuries. The thousands of images on videodisc are complemented by a database on BRS software.