The Academy is one of Britain’s foremost cultural institutions. It is a unique survival of the age of enlightenment, continuing to fulfil the purposes for which it was founded. The Academy is run by artists for the benefit of artists, while providing an elegant venue for ‘the promotion of the arts of design’. The Library of the Royal Academy of Arts is well known, as it is the oldest fine art library in the United Kingdom. The Archives has always lain in comparative shadow, even though it is close to the heart of the institution. This article attempts to place the Archives in context, to describe how the institution has regarded it over time and how it is now being revealed to a wide public.

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.

The Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA) is still little known among library professionals, and still insufficiently known by researchers and its other potential users. Created by decree in July 2001, it has been extremely slow in gestation and researchers in the field of art have waited for it for a very long time. The Institution’s Library, comprising the largely complementary holdings of three of the main art libraries in Paris, is expected to open within a few years, and readers will be housed mainly in the beautiful Salle Labrouste, formerly occupied by users of the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale.

Few of us could imagine undertaking any form of research without using one of the many bibliographies, library catalogues or databases which are now available. It is hard to imagine a time without them, and yet for art historians the first large-scale bibliographies in art history only appeared fewer than 150 years ago. This paper examines examples of two such works and contrasts differing visions of an art history bibliography.

The library of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, although the ‘youngest’ of the three big German art libraries, is today one of the most comprehensive art libraries in the world. It offers a unique combination of open access to the shelves for some 85% of the holdings, which are arranged in classified order, and in-depth subject indexing. Nowadays, the library’s traditional strengths are enhanced by its crucial contributions in the field of national and international online co-operation, above all to the Florence-Munich-Rome union catalogue and the future Virtual Library for Art History.

Why create a network of architecture, art, design and urbanism libraries in Argentina and Latin America? Would it not have been better to join one of the existing networks in developed countries, which are more efficient? But do we have the same needs, requests and resources? The Vitruvio network originated in Argentina about 10 years ago and has spread, unplanned, to other countries in this region such as Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador, establishing its objectives to suit the libraries co-operating in the project. Sustainable products and services have been developed, in line with the needs of the region, using a minimum of financial, technological and human resources, and highlighting the profession’s determination and hard work.

Tate is committed to attracting new audiences both within and beyond its galleries. Insight is a long-term programme which aims to develop online access to Tate’s Collection through digital imaging and related indexing and content initiatives. Following the successful digitisation of the Collection, Insight entered a second phase which included placing part of the Tate’s Archive Collection online for the first time.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana’s fascinating history is contrasted in this account with a description of the reconstruction work currently being carried out on its buildings in the historic centre of Rome. Its extensive collections are listed in the Florence-Munich-Rome union catalogue (www.kubikat.org), the union database of the major German art history research libraries in those cities, which has been accessible on the internet since December 1998. Conceived from the start as a place of study for art historians from all nations, the library continues to follow the vision of its founder, Henriette Hertz, by playing a part in international activities in the field. It is scheduled to re-open to external users in early 2008.

Oxford University’s Learning Technologies Group (LTG) runs workshops at the beginning of every academic year for each new intake of art history graduates. They have evolved over a number of years into a method both of informing students about what is available online in art history, and a means of offering them a strategy for conducting online research. It is notoriously difficult to get students to attend anything smacking of IT and its related subjects. As far as they are concerned, IT is already in their blood, and Google is the main tool for finding the most useful information on any subject. It is certainly difficult to compete with Google – I use it in my work and leisure frequently! However, getting two million hits on any one search and trying to determine who is behind the information found should be cause for serious concern, especially when conducting academic research.

Behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum is the world’s largest natural history library, with approximately one million printed books. But the crown jewels are the Library’s art collections, depicting rocks, minerals, fossils, plants and animals, and dating from the 17th to the 21st centuries. Its more than half a million individual items make this the largest collection of natural history art not only in the UK but in the world. Commercial exploitation of the collection has mostly been by publishers of books and journals, but others have seen opportunities for writing books about the illustrations, putting the art in exhibitions, printing the images on decorative items, and other marketing ventures. In 2003 the Library launched a website designed to promote the art collections further and make them accessible to a global audience.

Grey literature, documentation published outside traditional commercial channels, is not very often taken into account by art librarians in Argentina, judging by searches on online databases. However, experience with grey literature at the Fundación Espigas, the highly specialized Argentinian art information center in Buenos Aires, is changing this point of view. The Center’s database offers access to a great corpus of such publications, especially to ephemera such as private view cards, pamphlets, auction catalogues, catalogues of solo and group exhibitions and posters. This ‘minimal documentary information’ has an important place as a resource, and would prove invaluable for any research project on Argentine art in the future. Indeed this material is not grey but unexpectedly brilliant at providing rich and hidden information.

The Fundación Telefónica in Buenos Aires, with its mission of contributing to the spread and development of culture and education by means of the new technologies and ensuring equality of opportunity for the whole community, in 2003 opened its cultural centre, the Espacio Fundación Telefónica. The Espacio comprises exhibition spaces, a video-conferencing room, a media laboratory, a cafeteria and a media library with a strong focus on both contemporary art and information and communication technology. It is now facing its next challenge, which is to build up the centre to be the leading local and Latin-American source in its field.

Editing stock is a challenge for all libraries but this is particularly true in the area of art, design and communication. The authors describe a project in a London-based art, design and communication university, University of the Arts London, to agree on guidelines which would keep stock current and relevant, but at the same time safeguard valuable material for present and future use.

The Centre allemande d’histoire de l’art/Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte in Paris (DFK), founded in 1997, is a research institute dedicated to German research on French art and culture. Located in the historic centre of Paris on the place des Victoires, near to the Louvre and the recently founded French Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), its further task is to promote interest among French scholars in research on German art and cultural history. To support its major fields of activity, the DFK is creating a library devoted to German art and cultural history, which now comprises some 60,000 items.

In line with the national agenda for archives, the Britten-Pears Library is pursuing a strategy of making its collections better known and more accessible to a wider public. For a library with strong traditions, located in an isolated corner of coastal England, there are many challenges involved in embarking on this path and careful balances to be struck between the demands of security and access, innovation and tradition. This article outlines the progress made so far, and discusses some of the issues that have arisen along the way.