La Direction du Patrimoine is the successor of the Commission des Monuments historiques, which from its inception in 1837 was responsible for identifying, compiling an inventory of, and restoring, historic buildings. During the 19th century, this meant, in effect, medieval ecclesiastical structures and sites. From the beginning the Commission was careful to safeguard its papers, including drawings and plans of specific buildings; a number of volumes illustrating the nation’s architectural heritage were published in the second half of the 19th century; drawings, and photographs, were commissioned, and a library was assembled. From the 1860s the Commission employed photographers on its staff and efforts were made to record those buildings for which the state was responsible. The documentary resources which accumulated became known as the Bibliothèque des Monuments historiques. Recent decades have witnessed the devolution of the management of historical monuments, while the documentary collections are being cared for, exploited, and developed in a wider context, embracing secular, industrial, vernacular, and modern architecture, as well as art, photography itself, and artefacts from everyday life, to provide the broadest possible documentation of the French cultural heritage. A computer system is used, and many photographic images are being transferred to videodisc.

The library of the Instituto de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales was founded in 1961. The library is specially dedicated to Spanish art, architecture and restoration. Now it has about 20,000 volumes and 450 serial publications. The advent of the computer has revolutionised the ability of librarians to respond to their clientele, making libraries truly information centres: the computer system of this library is used to perform such operations as information retrieval and the creation and maintenance of individual in-house generated databases concerning the Spanish cultural heritage.

The potential of the videodisc has been recognised at the Louvre and space has been set aside in the Richelieu wing, recently made available to the Museum, to accommodate videodisc installations. Three videodiscs have been or are being produced in the first instance. One provides a general approach to the collections in the Louvre; a second assists the visitor to explore aspects of Ancient Greece by means of a choice of itineraries; and the third illustrates the themes of the guided tours of the Louvre and will be used by the guides to provide a brief introduction at the beginning of their tours. Of these only the first is available for sale, the other two having been designed explicitly for use within the Museum.

The architectural heritage of the 20th century is peculiarly vulnerable; partly because modern architecture broke with tradition, it is less easily recognised as being historic and worthy of preservation. Furthermore, efforts to secure public appreciation of contemporary architecture have concentrated too narrowly on the ‘International Modern’ style at the expense of the actual diversity of this century, on certain architects at the expense of others, and on the individual building, seen by itself, at the expense of the larger environment of which it is part. To see twentieth century architecture whole, it is necessary to depend on not only buildings themselves (insofar as they survive in something like their original condition), and not only on publications (which have tended to reflect the promotion of Modernism), but also on archival sources and above all, on the private archives of architects. The value of such archives derives not only from handsome architectural drawings, which institutions are always eager to acquire, but also from account books, publicity material, models, photographs, and notebooks, and from the integrity and coherence of all this material which belongs together; it is probably the challenge represented by such a range of material which accounts for the paucity of architectural archives in the public sphere. Fortunately, a new climate of interest in architecture, which has seen the establishment of several museums of architecture and the emergence of ‘l’archivisme’ – a re-interpreting of architectural styles of the past, drawing on archival sources and influencing contemporary architectural practice via exhibition design in particular – augurs well for the future of architectural archives. In France, the Institut Français d’Architecture has been responsible for archives of 20th century architecture since 1980, and since 1988 has operated an information centre for private architectural archives in Paris and the surrounding area. Other regional architectural archives are being set up; it is to be hoped that the resulting network will help to foment a spirit which will lead to the establishment of a museum of architecture in Paris, while at the same time providing a safety-net to ensure the well-being of private architectural archives.

Following an earlier visit to Madrid which was described in the pages of the Art Libraries Journal, the author travelled to Lisbon in April 1989, once again visiting art libraries, museums, and bookdealers. Several German libraries participate in exchanging publications with the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa.

The videodisc ‘Images de la Révolution Française’, which draws on the extensive collections of the Département des Estampes et de la Photographie of the Bibliothèque Nationale, was conceived in 1982 as a means of preparing for the Bicentenary of 1989. Collaboration was established with a parallel project initiated by Pergamon Press, the aim of which was to publish a research collection of written source material on microfiche, and the joint venture was subsequently supported by the French government. The videodisc, comprising 38,000 images relating to the events, the ideals, and the cultural background of the Revolution, was produced, using specially created colour transparencies for the most part, to meet both PAL and NTSC standards; although designed so that it can be used by itself, both interactive software, and a scholarly printed catalogue, are also available.

The Archives des Musées Nationaux in the Palais du Louvre comprise the archives of the Louvre itself, and of the Direction des Musées de France including the Réunion des Musées Nationaux. The archives of the Louvre include both ‘les registres de copistes’, a record of artists who sought entry to the Louvre, to visit and to make copies, during 1821-1850, and ‘les registres des salons’, covering the years 1824-1853 when the salons were still held in the Louvre. Together these comprise an invaluable source of information on artists in the first half of the 19th century, including as they do details of particular works, and artists’ addresses. A detailed analysis of this documentation was scheduled to begin at the start of 1990.

Religion and culture are inseparable; religion constitutes the living context to which many works of art belong and without knowledge of which they cannot be understood. Although the librarian who is responsible for religious material need not be a believer, some religious knowledge, preferably combined with a degree of sympathy, is essential.

The Archives Marie-Alain Couturier is devoted to the work of one man and to his achievement in reconciling religious and Modern art. The Archives owes its existence to Père Régamey who was able to keep Père Couturier’s papers together after he died in 1954, and to the intervention of the Menil Foundation in 1975. The Archives has two aims: to publish the writings of Père Couturier together with related material, and to conserve a body of documentation which is indispensable for the study of 20th century art. The Archives comprise Père Couturier’s manuscripts and correspondence, and an extensive file, including correspondence with Matisse, documenting in detail the planning and building of the chapel at the convent at Vence.

Material amassed by art critics in pursuance of their work, and according to criteria different from those of museums and academic institutions, can have its own archival value but is seldom preserved. The Archives de la critique d’art, newly established at the University of Rennes with support from AICA and FRAC-Bretagne, aims to remedy this situation, initially for France and ultimately for Europe as a whole, by collecting and preserving material of this kind, and by creating a database of information on art criticism worldwide.