The world-wide compass of the visual arts and their parallel documentation brings with it the necessity for a world-wide network of information retrieval, communication and organisation between art libraries. This, together with the personal commitment towards material and readers, is what gives art librarianship its distinction. Within art library organisations over the years and within IFLA now that distinction has been continuously developed and shared. A particular duty of the art librarian now must be to help preserve the local and national qualities of art and life within the framework of the international scene.
The text of a paper presented to the Art Libraries Section at the IFLA Conference, Leipzig, August 1981.