In the past three years, the cultural heritage of Bosnia-Herzegovina has suffered major destruction. The result is what a Council of Europe report has called ‘a cultural catastrophe’. Historical architecture (including 1,200 mosques, 150 churches, 4 synagogues and over 1,000 other monuments), works of art, as well as cultural institutions (including major museums, libraries, archives and manuscript collections) have been systematically targeted and destroyed. The losses include not only the works of art, but also crucial documentation that might aid in their reconstruction. Our Bosnian colleagues need the assistance of the international library community to help them recover and rebuild some of what has been lost and to rebuild the buildings and institutions that embody their country’s cultural heritage. Librarians outside Bosnia, through their institutions and professional organisations, can provide material and technical assistance, training, and documentation, to help undo the destruction of memory.

Libraries can easily be integrated into a museum’s activities, since museums too have functions that require the processing of information, such as preservation, research and communication. However museums in Turkey were not notable for developing efficient art libraries until Istanbul Museum of Modern Art opened. The distinctiveness of this museum’s library results from a change in the museum environment in Turkey, and the introduction of a number of features that are new in art libraries in this country.

The ACRL Framework for information literacy for higher education, the guiding document for academic instruction librarians in North America, encourages a deep connection between information literacy and discipline-specific teaching practices. In the context of art librarianship, one means of attaining this connection is via librarian participation in studio critiques. Critiques enable librarians to identify the similarities between the research process and the creative process, making information literacy relevant for art students. In two different institutional examples, the ACRL Framework provides a conceptual grounding for studio critiques as a collaborative space between librarians and faculty, where students learn lifelong information literacy and critical thinking skills that enrich their artistic work.

The Fine Arts Library at Harvard University has served the needs of teaching faculty, art museum staff, art and architectural students, researchers and historians since the founding of the Fogg Art Museum in 1895. Library collections have been enhanced by gifts from faculty, museum publications received on exchange, and by the transfer of arts-related materials from other Harvard libraries. Although founded in the spirit of a museum library, the Fine Arts Library has increasingly developed its collections and services for a wide community of users in fields across the academic spectrum.

Exhibition catalogs and related ‘ephemera’ frequently include statements by artists which can be regarded as primary documents. Artists’ statements which are included in catalogs of group exhibitions tend to be relatively difficult to access and so are easily overlooked, while statements included in ephemeral publications associated with group exhibitions are virtually irretrievable even when such material is retained by libraries. Some help is available from published bibliographies and online databases; more thorough cataloging procedures are also available.

The traditional subject category ‘visual arts’ is based on a value judgment, but aesthetic criteria no longer suffice to define this category. Art is increasingly permissive in its range. The subjects of art history, archaeology, social anthropology, and history of technology tend more and more to overlap. Almost any material artefact can now be viewed aesthetically, and any work of visual art may be considered as an artefact. Libraries should aim to bring together all the material culture of human societies, whether tools or works of art, in their bibliographic classifications instead of scattering it as at present.

(Slightly revised version of a paper given at the Art Libraries Round Table, 45th IFLA Congress, Copenhagen, 1979.)

Art libraries are in many instances particularly well placed to operate international exchanges of publications, especially when (as in the case of museum libraries) they serve institutions which publish art documentation. It is nevertheless necessary to be aware of the hidden costs which can exist, and to examine the reasons for and the cost-effectiveness of exchange programmes. Guidelines for efficient and effective exchange are suggested.

Ephemera, the fleeting images of moments in time, are valuable for the historical perspectives, social insights and visual stimuli they can generate. The means of collecting are various and frequently cheap. Collections can be organised along simple or sophisticated lines depending on individual libraries’ resources.

These notes started life as a short paper, presented to audiences at Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart during a tour of Australia which the author made at the invitation of ARLIS/ANZ in September 1979; in this revised and extended form they were read to an inaugural meeting of an ARLIS North West of England group, at Preston Polytechnic on October 31st 1979.

‘Universal Availability of Publications’ (UAP) and the universal availability of art publications should be considered in the context of ‘one world’, a world in which we all share responsibility for our fellow human beings. In this context both librarianship and art, and thus art librarianship also, should be seen as services rendered to humankind at large. IFLA’s UAP programme has been conceived as a service, intended to supply genuine human needs, and art librarians, who are constantly frustrated in their efforts to serve users of art libraries by the limitations to the availability of art documentation, can readily identify a need for ‘Universal Availability of Art Publications’. Nevertheless, a worldwide programme of this nature is in danger, first, of being pursued for its own sake (or for the sake of ‘needs’ which are imagined, over-emphasised, or misconceived), and second, of reinforcing cultural imperialism. Safeguards include acceptance of the necessity to proceed step by step in pursuit of a success which can never be complete; the fact that UAP is founded on local collections developed to meet local needs; recognition of the imbalance in the production of publications in different parts of the world; and recognition of the importance of unpublished documentation and of ‘publications’ which do not as yet exist. A greater emphasis on increasing the availability, and generating the production, of publications from countries which publish relatively little, is proposed. A fourth safeguard ought to derive from the professional ethics and grass-roots experience of librarians, who serve and identify with library users, actual and potential. The pursuit of universal availability of art publications should be based on realistic assessment of what is feasible, and on local, regional, and national resources, with all possible encouragement being given to developing countries to document their own arts. Art librarians may be paying too little attention to the needs of users and, especially, of non-users of art libraries, and should be aware of the barriers to availability which can result from the prevalence of a narrow, elitist conception of ‘Art’ and from the provision of library services primarily for an elite. Without neglecting the service of scholarship, the art library profession should try to shift the balance of its commitment towards the provision of a service for everyone, everywhere, so that our interpretation and pursuit of the ‘Universal Availability of Art Publications’ truly reflects a vision of our whole world’s heritage and practice ‘of divers arts’.

This is the text of a paper presented to the Section of Art Libraries, at the 1985 IFLA Council in Chicago.

As the number of digital images available to art historians grows apace, it is perhaps an opportune moment to consider what impact digital images have had on the discipline and on the work methods of art historians. This paper revisits the findings of a research project – Compare and contrast – focusing on the attitudes of art historians towards digital image technologies, the role of the technologies in the different phases and activities of the research process, the tools and their potential, and barriers to the use of digital images.

Arts students access information and find inspiration through a cornucopia of resources both within and outside of the library. Informed by creativity theory and information needs studies, this case study set out to identify the needs and behaviours of first year undergraduate students at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury. The use of multiple collection techniques captured rich data and provided an insight into ways of enhancing outreach both in the physical environment and online.

The Hyman Kreitman Research Centre for the Tate Library and Archive opened at Tate Britain in May 2002. The Library (covering those areas collected by the Gallery) and the Archive (covering British art since 1900) together constitute a centre of excellence for the study of modern art, particularly British. The new Centre, comprising storage for up to 20 years and reading rooms for around 40 people, has been built in a refurbished area of Tate Britain. The design aimed to comply with BS5454 and issues of compact storage, security, reading rooms without daylight, fire and flood hazards have been addressed.

Digital technologies are affecting all aspects of modern life, with both art and libraries becoming more digital. This presents new opportunities for engagement, but also creates significant challenges to the long term future of our collections, due to the rapid changes in technology and the threat of digital obsolescence.

This article will reflect on the ongoing work at the University of the Arts London (UAL) to preserve and provide access to the university's growing digital collections. Digital preservation is an emerging area of practice. What progress have we made so far and what does the future hold for our digital collections?

In an era of economic stringency it is necessary to ‘sell’ the art library, in order to win support as an investment for survival. To do this a new style of reference librarianship has been implemented in the Fine Arts Department of Birmingham Public Libraries, including the provision of services to branch libraries and to art teachers; the creation of publications, exhibitions, and the Art Pack; and the involvement of staff in appropriate committees. (The text of a paper presented to the course on ‘Managing the Arts’ organised by ARLIS and the Polytechnic of North London in December, 1976).

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.

The subject of this article is Europeana Fashion, an EU-funded initiative that deals with the aggregation and online dissemination of the digital fashion heritage from the most important European collections. The project started with a consortium consisting of 22 partners from 12 European countries and included the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Les Arts Décoratifs (Paris), MoMu (Antwerp) and many other museums. Also archives of brands, such as Missoni and Pucci were represented. The main goal of Europeana Fashion was to harvest the digital collections of fashion institutions and to re-present them in a uniform way on a specialized fashion portal. This article outlines the origins of the project, focussing on its main achievements, and offers a look into the future of europeanafashion.eu.

A wide selection of recent articles argues for an active involvement of libraries in Digital Humanities. This engagement would not only reflect the traditional role of libraries to support ongoing research, but would also provide the opportunity to re-envision their responsibilities and to create a space for research and development within their organisation. In our opinion, such an implementation of R&D in academic libraries is indeed essential to provide adequate support to digital scholarship. Digital projects also benefit greatly when they welcome the library as a full and valued partner. This point is illustrated through a discussion of EuropeanaPhotography, in which the KU Leuven (Belgium) acted as the coordinating partner.