The Frick Art Reference Library has one of the world’s richest historic collections of catalogs of art sold at auction. Awareness and use of this collection has increased as independent scholars and the staff of museums rigorously investigate issues of provenance. Another factor in the increasing recognition of auction sale catalogs is their value as economic documents that may shed light on broader trends, topics that sometimes resonate beyond the field of art historical scholarship.

The Biblioteca Marucelliana, a public amenity and a reflection of Florentine cultural life since its foundation early in the 18th century, is the home of a collection of 19th century and early 20th century fashion plates, donated in 1965 by Count Carlo Gamba. This collection is used by both scholars and students, including students training to be theatre and fashion designers.

For most of the 400 years of the Bodleian Library’s existence, users have had to travel to Oxford to use its collections. In recent years, Oxford has undertaken a number of focused, ‘boutique’ digitisation projects. Now, as a partner in the Google Library Project, an immense range of scholarly and other 19th-century out-of-copyright library materials from the Bodleian’s collections will be digitised en masse and will be made freely available over the internet to anyone who has web access. Millions of books and journals will be scanned in the course of the Project and the author contends that digitisation on such a scale represents a revolution in the dissemination of information that parallels the impact of the invention of printing from moveable type in the 15 th century.

More than 20 million images are to be found at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), in the form of book and periodical illustrations, manuscript illuminations, maps and plans, prints, drawings and photographs. The editorial context of these images means they are to be found in all fourteen collections departments of the library. However, it is the department of Prints and Photographs that, thanks to legal deposit for published images instituted in the 17th century, possesses one of the richest iconographic collections in the world: prints, posters, drawings, photographs, postcards, etc. These images have to be consulted in the reading rooms of the library’s different collection departments, which are at five different sites (François-Mitterrand (Tolbiac), Richelieu, Arsenal, Opéra, Avignon - Maison Jean Vilar). The introduction of digitisation should bring many changes to this traditional means of research, although we are still only at the beginning, with a programme that started little more than ten years ago.

The history of the library founded in 1897 at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence is marked by a very close connection with the history and profile of the Institute itself. The demand for scientific literature for research on Florentine Renaissance art and culture was the key motivation for establishing a German research library in Florence, where this art and culture flourished. But from the very beginning the holdings covered Italian art as a whole, not just the Renaissance and Florentine art. The acquisition policy as well as the internal organisation and systematic structure of the library have right up to the present day mirrored the research activities of the Institute and its scholars. With the founding of a consortium of the three German research libraries in Florence, Munich (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte) and Rome (Bibliotheca Hertziana) in 1994, a new era began. High-profile bibliographic information, additional services and the integration of the library in Florence into this co-operative network became a further characteristic of the existing identity of the Institute and its library, which were – and continue to be – closely tied to Florence and Tuscany.

New Zealanders like to think of themselves as high users of the latest technology. Does this extend to digital imagery in the workplace? Curators at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki were surveyed regarding digital image sources, their use and the problems and opportunities they presented. They were found to be keen, adept users, satisfied with their technical and retrieval capabilities, and aware of issues relating to copyright and image storage. Happy with thumbnails in many instances, they employed the skills of the Gallery’s professional photographers when higher quality images were required. Looking at the move from analogue to digital, slide use was found to be negligible but reproductions in books and journals were still a favoured source. Disadvantages were downplayed and the positive impact of digital imagery was stressed.

In Japan, art museums have created databases for management, educational and promotional purposes, rather than for research. At the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, a group consisting of a librarian, three curators, and a systems specialist, embarked in 1984 on a four year project to assemble and test a system which, utilising machine-readable thesauri and classification systems developed in Western countries, will, it is hoped, facilitate research into Western art.

The first part of this two-part article reporting on visits made by the author to art libraries in West Germany in September 1979, concentrates on the Kunstbibliothek and the Museumsbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, the Bibliothek des Germanischen Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, and the Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek der Stadt Köln. The scope and organisation of these libraries is described and general topics such as the exchange of publications between museums, and co-operation between libraries are raised. (To be concluded in the next issue).

How do you turn library, archive and museum collaboration from a good idea into reality? And what are the benefits of collaborative action to begin with? This article introduces the increasing rewards and risks of interdependent working relationships along the collaboration continuum, and highlights the institutional and environmental catalysts which foster collaborative action. Use these insights to assess where your institution is on the path to deeper collaboration, and which obstacles you may still need to address!

Cataloguing Cultural Objects (CCO) is a standards-based project developed under the auspices of the Visual Resources Association (VRA). CCO addresses the metadata needs of communities that work with a broad range of artistic or cultural works and associated images of those works. CCO provides guidelines for selecting, ordering and formatting descriptive data used to populate catalog records. This article gives the background to the project and the involvement of the user communities in the development of the guide, as well as describing future directions.

Since the 19th century, a developing awareness of cultural patrimony has been accompanied by advances in conservation, by the growth of a body of literature on conservation, and by the establishment of bodies, including agencies at the international level, dedicated to conservation. But not everything can be preserved: choices have to be made of what most merits preservation. Art librarians are involved, both as conservers of the documentary heritage (which contributes to the ethos in which decisions are made) and, sometimes, as members of teams responsible for the preservation of artefacts and buildings. There is a need for specialists of all kinds who are involved in the preservation of the cultural patrimony to work closely together, to discuss priorities, and to ensure that nothing escapes attention.

When we define society today as a ‘global society’ we are saying that we are, or at least we strive to be, an interconnected society, even more than if we were to say society is ‘worldwide’. In a global society, borders are crossed, and the phrase implies interaction, participation and inclusiveness. Artists and designers, as both a product of a global society and in response to the resulting all-inclusiveness, or ‘globality’, of their respective fields, are prompted to cross two kinds of border: physical and methodological. This paper focuses on the crossing of methodological boundaries and, in addition, recognizes the highly individualized nature of art and design research. This serves as a launch pad to explore the question of how librarians can shape their practice in order to respond better to the needs of contemporary artists and designers.

This paper provides a history of the Golden Cockerel Press, an English private press active between 1921 and 1961. There were three major periods in the Press’s development. Under Harold Taylor the Press was an idealistic attempt to provide an opportunity for the publication of new writers not yet well-enough known for the larger publishing market. The second owner was Robert Gibbings who had helped found the Society of Wood-Engravers and used the Press as a showcase for his own and fellow engravers’ work. Finally, during the longest period in the Press’s history, Christopher Sandford continued both the innovative approach to text and the interest in wood engraving for illustrations. He produced 122 books, most on handmade paper in limited editions, and contrived to keep the cost within the price range of the average book collector by using mechanical typesetting at a commercial press while yet overseeing and revising the work at every stage of its design. Sandford sold the Press to Thomas Toseloff, an American, in 1959.

The work of the Press is exceptionally fine and contains a unique record of British wood engraving over a period of forty years. Following the history of the Press are three appendices: a chronological list of the Press books, an index to authors, and an index to illustrators.

This article provides an introduction to the use of the Creative Commons licence system, and sets it in a historical, economic and political context. It is written from the perspective of involvement in open educational projects in an arts university that has used the licences. A description of the fundamental features of the licences and their uses is given, together with an outline of how the Creative Commons organisation works and its strategic aims. An assessment of the usefulness of these licences is provided, together with a description of the challenges faced in dealing with low levels of legal awareness amongst academics. Practical advice and sources of further information and guidance are offered to help readers implement the licences locally.

The Australian National Gallery Library has used RLIN since January 1985. It is used primarily as an online bibliographic database, to trace publications on particular artists and as a means of verifying references supplied by library users. It is also used, but less frequently, to verify bibliographic details of items to be acquired for the Library; other more occasional use is made of RLIN as a source of catalogue records, to identify locations of items the loan of which is to be sought from overseas, to verify name headings, and as a source of information used in stock selection. Of the special files, Scipio has proved most useful as a source of information on sales catalogues. RLIN does not present insuperable problems to the remote user, although an offline print facility and extended access hours would both be helpful.