Arlis was established as a result of this letter which Trevor Fawcett, then Sub-Librarian at the University of East Anglia, published in the Library Association Record, March 1968. (Reproduced here with permission.)

Les bibliothèques des musées français possèdent un patrimoine considérable, divers, original qui doit sa spécificité à l’expertise de leurs conservateurs. Ils ont le souci constant de rassembler une documentation de haut niveau afin de mener leurs recherches. Ces trésors, et cette documentation, acquis sur des fonds publics, devraient-ils être mis à la disposition d’un plus large public, comme nous en avons de nombreux exemples en Europe, en Amérique du Nord? Malgré quelques réussites exemplaires, la plupart des bibliothèques et centres de documentation des musées français n’ont pas les équipements et le personnel nécessaires à cette mission plus large. Cet article suggère quelques pistes qui pourront leur permettre d’affirmer leur place essentielle dans le réseau des bibliothèques d’art, tout en restant des bibliothèques de recherche.

Art libraries in Denmark mostly fall into one of two categories: art departments’ in public libraries, and research libraries attached to colleges, universities, and museums. Librarians in research libraries are in many cases scholars in their own right, while library staff at the Kunstakademiets Bibliotek are responsible for the Bibliografi over dansk kunst (sadly not published since 1981) and for Danish contributions to the BHA. The Royal Library and some art libraries hold collections of visual resources and of archival materials; in addition, there is an autonomous national archive of Danish artists, Weilbachs arkiv. An art librarians’ section of Bibliotekarforbundet (the Union of Danish Librarians), Kunstfaggruppen, was initiated by art librarians in public libraries, but is open to other art librarians too; Danish art librarians also work together within ARLIS/Norden. Professional training in Denmark is largely confined to general librarianship; art librarians in public libraries tend to be trained librarians with a personal enthusiasm for art, whereas librarians in research libraries are in some cases graduates but are not necessarily trained librarians. While the public library system took advantage of standardization, automation, and networking, the research libraries could not so readily embrace change, but two recent initiatives are beginning to bring libraries of all kinds together — DanBib, the Danish online union catalogue, formed in 1995 by merging the two separate databases for public and research libraries which both originated in the 1980s, and Kulturnet Danmark, a government-sponsored scheme involving the Internet.

Is the development of UK digital visual arts initiatives driven by professional ideology more than user need? Is the vast treasure trove of images and metadata being produced still difficult to identify and locate? A brief overview of a selected range of recent key initiatives finds a mixed picture. Content is still mainly accessible to users with an informed expectation of its existence, and the full potential of the internet has not been fully absorbed by the providers. However, there are optimistic signs of improving visibility and access.

The documentation problems faced by museums, and the organisations established to assist in tackling them are described along with an assessment of present progress at individual museum, and national and international co-ordination levels. The role which computers may play in this field is examined. However, systems analysis is the first priority, and automation is only one solution, and not appropriate in all cases.

ARTstor (http://www.artstor.org) is a digital library consisting of images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities and social sciences, along with a set of tools to support use of those images in research and pedagogy. Originally conceived as a project of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2001, ARTstor became an independent not-for-profit organization in January 2004 and launched the digital library in July of that year. ARTstor works closely with both providers and users of content from educational and cultural institutions around the world in creating a resource that meets the needs of the scholarly, educational and cultural communities. At present, the ARTstor Digital Library contains over 420,000 digital images and descriptive data; software to enable active use of the images in the digital library; and tools that allow users to access and use personal and/or institutional images along with ARTstor content for scholarship and teaching.

Folk art is widely supposed to have come to an end with the coming of urban, industrial society, but activities persist which may be termed ‘folk art’ and which include, for instance, ‘family art’ — the creating, by a family, of its own visual surroundings and traditions. Folk art is a people’s art; it affirms and renews personal, local, and community experience; it is a shared activity which does not elevate the role of the ‘artist’. But libraries by and large document fine art, and thus, at least by implication, are associated with its values and appear to have nothing to contribute to the kind of social change which may be necessary if people’s art is to flourish.

The text of a paper delivered to art librarian members of the Danish Library Association in November 1972, published in Bibliotek 70, no. 2, 1973, pp. 31-34, and now published for the first time in English.

The South African National Gallery (SANG) Library has been making its resources available to school teachers since 1992. Now a new outreach project, which has been in a planning stage for some months, has been started with the loan of material to libraries situated at some distance from the centre of Cape Town.

While a great deal of the material evidence of Australian art of the past has been lost as a result of bushfires, other natural causes, accidents, or carelessness, even more has been deliberately destroyed. Artists or their families have often wished to erase the memory of convict or immigrant origins, youthful indiscretions, or previous marriages. The failure of national and state governments to formulate policies to ensure the preservation of business archives (including the archives of architectural firms and art galleries) continues to allow valuable material to be lost. Surviving archival material is often dispersed, occasionally inaccessible, and not infrequently inadequately catalogued. Fortunately nationwide initiatives have been launched – not a moment too soon – by the National Library of Australia and the Library of the Australian National

In 1961 Elisabeth Jastrow retired from her position as Professor of Art at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). That same year her friends and colleagues established a scholarship for advanced art history students in her name. Jastrow devoted 20 years of her life to teaching at Greensboro. These were both difficult and rewarding years, fraught with financial worries, lack of library facilities, personal losses and a constant struggle to obtain teaching materials for her classes. At the same time she immersed herself in providing a high quality education despite the limited resources at her disposal. Her career began far from North Carolina under very different circumstances and with plans for a considerably more active academic life.

Les Archives de la critique d’art sont une bibliothèque et un centre de recherche spécialisés en art contemporain et en critique et théorie de l’art. Elles se sont donné pour but de réunir les documents et les publications de tous ceux qui écrivent sur l’art contemporain.

Unique en son genre, cette institution créée en 1989 a une envergure internationale aussi bien par son fonds (écrits et archives) que par ses actions: développement de bases de données et d’un site Internet, organisation de conférences et de colloques. Son originalité consiste dans l’implication des critiques d’art dans son fonctionnement même. Par l’apport de leurs documents, écrits et/ou documentation personnelle, les critiques constituent la majeure partie des collections de la bibliothèque.

In Spring 1999 the Art Libraries Society/The Netherlands (OKBN) plans to organize a conference on ‘Book & Image: Visual Resources and Art Libraries’, to discuss various aspects of the whereabouts, accessibility and use of visual resources in art libraries and other collections of art historical documentation. By doing this we hope to increase awareness amongst art librarians and visual resource librarians of the necessity of communicating questions and sharing their experiences. In particular we need to find new ways of co-operating in order to meet the challenges posed by new technological developments and future users. A small working group of ARLIS-NL members, joined by some colleagues from slide libraries and visual archives, already meets bi-monthly for brainstorming sessions aimed at preparing an attractive and challenging program for this event.

The Delft University of Technology Library, the oldest technical library in the Netherlands, is the national focal point for collecting literature on the applied sciences and technology. A major part of this collection covers applied and visual arts, with works from the sixteenth and seventeenth century based on Vitruvius, others by Palladio, Serlio or Dutch architects like Hendrik de Keyser, and contextual material on architecture and the fine arts. The Treasury aims to be both a nationally and an internationally known collection of technological literature.

The Reference Library of the Chinese Academy of Arts (RLCAA) has identified the maintenance and development of its rich collections as its primary objective, which it pursues not merely by acquiring published materials but also, for example, by making recordings of musical and dramatic performances. But also, the RLCAA is committed to promoting and facilitating the use of its collections, and is consciously moving away from a passive custodial role to the active provision of services to users. In order to serve their users better, libraries must end their isolation and join together in networks; a new building at the Chinese Academy of Arts is to become the national centre for art information and library services, and this development also challenges the Academy to co-ordinate its several resource centres more effectively. Staff at the RLCAA have already created an art thesaurus, and are currently working on a bibliography of Chinese artists which it is hoped will be the first of several online databases covering different branches of the arts in China.

How can special collections and archives (SCA) services contribute to the development of creativity in higher education students? An understanding of how creativity is developed can help those who work with special collections and archives to better design sessions that facilitate this development. Creativity is defined, put in context, and discussed as a metacognitive process. SCA as an environment that can contribute to the development of creativity is explored, along with the importance of the learner voice and pedagogical tools that allow for the facilitation of metacognitive experiences.

For the past four years, the team working on the “Ed Ruscha, Streets of Los Angeles” project at the Getty Research Institute has worked to establish a framework for leveraging the benefits of collaboration and conversation between groups of people who work in different areas of expertise and communities of practice. Facilitating sustained conversations among art historians, art librarians, and technical specialists has proved a successful framework of mutual consultation between Getty staff and external collaborators. These conversations helped external collaborators better understand the kinds of metadata generated through the archival process and how it might be useful for investigating their particular research questions. In turn, Getty staff gained a better understanding of the kinds of metadata helpful to researchers, which helped determine our own priorities for this work. Moreover, new avenues of inquiry emerging from this collaborative project have outlined a path for articulating best practices in digital art history projects to come.

The Japan Art Documentation Society (JADS) was founded in April. Inspired by developments both within Japan and abroad, and by the IFLA Section of Art Libraries, JADS has set out to embrace the common interests of library and museum professionals as represented by an integrated concept of “art documentation”. Essentially, the Society represents a collective response to the challenge and potential of the computer - to the benefits it can bring to, and the methodologies it requires of, the organising of art objects, art images, and art information. (The Society’s “prospectus”, from its first Newsletter, is appended).

The Internet is making the world a much smaller place and when it comes to digital goods – products that can be reduced to a series of zeros and ones and squirt down a wire – there are no international borders. One question often asked in relation to the Internet and copyright law is whether there should be a single international copyright law. Is this likely in the near future?

A recent project at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has highlighted the importance of the library of private books built up by its founder. Tasks involved the identification of the items, preservation and conservation activities and bibliographic control of the collection. The most visible result is a website that provides virtual access, as well as a deeper insight, into Calouste Gulbenkian’s personal book collection. The information in the library’s catalogue has been re-organised in order to make it accessible to a wide audience with differing needs and interests.