Since the 1960s AICA, the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art, has been increasingly concerned with the primary resources on which research depends. In particular, access to archival material was felt to be necessary in order to counter a dominant, highly selective, ‘modernist’ interpretation of 20th century art, with a more objective, comprehensive, and thoroughly researched history of the period covering all countries. The AICARC-Bulletin, founded in 1974, is devoted to primary sources, archives and documentation centres, archival techniques, and the ‘documentary’ approach to art, in relation to the art of this century.

As former colonial links and reliance on a technologically-developed ‘West’ recede into the past, Asian and Pacific countries, including Australia, are becoming increasingly aware of one another as neighbours. Circulation of exhibitions, artists’ visits, cultural festivals, government and UNESCO activities, and art publishing, provide a network for sharing art and art information between countries in this region. Among art libraries, those in Australia and New Zealand participate in the network represented by ARLIS/ANZ; the IFLA Section of Art Libraries and its global role offers scope for further developments. An Asian/Pacific ‘ARLIS’ is proposed.

In smaller countries where the art literature has tended to be overlooked by international indexing services, there is a pressing need for national art bibliographies. A retrospective bibliography can serve a vital role in awakening citizens to unfamiliar artists and artistic activity, and to the richness of the cultural heritage. Beyond that, national art bibliographies make possible the investigation of artistic influences and international cultural connections, and of individual artists on the move.

The SoHo Center for the Visual Arts was founded by Larry Aldrich in 1973 in an area of New York inhabited by many artists whom the Center was intended to benefit; it included a Library specifically for artists, developed by Bernard Karpel. The Library’s collections emphasised twentieth-century art and were organised by means of colour-coding in place of orthodox classifying. The Library was staffed by artists, and was well used until its closure in 1985; it has subsequently been reopened within the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

I love the word ‘library’ and feel sorry for the French who wasted their equivalent on a mere stationery shop and cornered themselves into using the nobly historical yet somewhat dry term ‘bibliothéque’. I feel that my own books make up a library but would scarcely constitute a bibliothéque.

I am temporarily separated from the bulk of my books and thus more keenly aware than ever of their importance to me. It is not only the contents that I miss but the visible presence of them. I can picture the shelves and the configurations of buckrams and dust-jackets: in my mind’s eye particular books can be located. I see Bergson’s Creative Evolution there next to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Shall I ever read it again? I doubt it; yet the sight of it, austere on its appropriate shelf reminds me that in some sense what lies within its covers is also to be found within my head, although I cannot quote a word of it. Books do furnish a mind. The visual array of them is a house of memory in the form of a mnemonic of evocative spines.

Describes the evolution of the Artists in Canada database, from a checklist of artists’ files in one library, to a manually compiled and then automated union list, and now, into an on-line retrieval service.

Learning about Japanese art has been difficult for Westerners. Limited access, language barriers, and cultural misunderstanding have been almost insurmountable obstacles. Knowledge of Japanese art in the West began over 150 years before the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1853. Englebert Kaempfer (1657-1716), sent to Japan as a physician for the Dutch East India Company, befriended a young assistant who provided information for a book on Japanese life and history published in 1727. By 1850, more ethnographic information had been published in Europe. Catalogs of sales of Japanese art in Europe exist prior to 1850 and collection catalogs from major museums follow in the second half of that century. After the Meiji Restoration (1867) cultural exchange was possible and organizations for that purpose were formed. Diaries of 19th century travellers and important international fairs further expanded cross-cultural information. Okakura Kakuzo, a native of Japan, published in English about Japanese art and ultimately became Curator of the important collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The advent of photography made visual images easily accessible to Westerners. Great collectors built up the holdings of major American museums. In the 20th century, materials written and published in Japan in English language have furthered understanding of Japanese culture. During the past twenty years, travelling exhibitions and scholarly catalogs have circulated in the West. Presently monographs, dissertations and translated scholarly texts are available. Unfortunately, there is little understanding in the West of the organization of Japanese art libraries and archives which contain primary source material of interest to art historians.

‘Universal availability’ of art publications, which depends on effective national coverage, cannot be left to chance; within particular countries much depends on co-ordinated or complementary acquisitions by art libraries and other libraries too, while at national, regional, and international levels there is need to ensure that no areas or categories of art are neglected, and to provide for the redressing of imbalances.

“‘Of course not. The model is very important. Yanaihara and Caroline feel the same way you do about it, that posing is an active participation in the work. It’s not easy, either. I know that. But Genet felt that posing was completely passive. And he stopped posing because he felt he was being transformed into an object. I thought that was a very literary attitude.’”

Universal Availability of Publications - and of art publications - can only be achieved by efficient national exercise of certain functions: publishing, distribution - and, by libraries, acquisition, retention, and interlibrary supply. Improved availability is needed in most countries if availability in general is not to decline, and, especially when resources are in short supply, this is most likely to be achieved by combining the best or most appropriate elements of different systems but also through either centralization and/or strong coordination.

In recent times Japanese posters have increasingly been appreciated all over the world. Their history is traced from the Edo period (the 18th and 19th centuries) in relation to Japan’s economic and commercial development. Only a few museums and libraries in Japan have established poster collections; these collect posters either as ‘art objects’ or as examples of graphic design. Methods of acquiring, arranging, and accommodating posters are described.

ARLIS/ANZ Art Libraries Society, Australia New Zealand was formed in August 1976. Since then, ARLIS/ANZ has arranged a number of seminars and workshops for art librarians in both countries; found finance to bring three noted art librarians to the antipodes to give talks and workshops which stimulated both members and other interested professionals; and has published thirteen issues of ARLIS/ANZ News. ARLIS has served as a valuable support for art librarians working in isolation, at great distance from international centres of publishing and art activity. Distance between ARLIS/ANZ centres led to the formation of local interest groups and cooperation between art libraries in art galleries and museums, universities, schools of art, and national resource libraries.

Which libraries do you use and how do your use them? Having lived rather isolated I have felt the need to build up my own library. In younger days I used the local public library quite a lot. Their collection of art books was rather meagre, but it was still a strong inspiration. They had got several current art magazines as well, both Norwegian and international. I still use’ public libraries, especially their collection of fiction, poetry, philosophy, etc., which is quite good. They provide the information they have not got themselves through inter-library lending, and the services have been quite satisfactory. Apart from the library of the Statens Kunstakademi (National Academy of Fine Art) I have never used a ‘professional’ art library.

A six-month project undertaken by the University College Dublin School of Architecture has investigated the possibilities of putting a collection of images, transferred from slides, on to videodisc accessed through a computer. The project grew out of an earlier project to computerize the catalogue of the Slide Library of the Architecture and Planning Library. Drawbacks include loss of image quality and the impossibility of adding to the disc once pressed. Changing technology may provide answers to some of these problems, enabling the benefits confirmed by the project’s successful completion to be exploited further.

The Australian Art Index, AARTI, is one of a group of data bases within the Ausinet network which will, between them, cover contemporary Australian art and architecture on a national basis. National coverage is possible because of the small size of the Australian population, the existence of people prepared to take on the task with managements to back them and the availability of a network with the flexibility to take data in a wide range of formats. AARTI contains records of four types: monographs, journal articles, exhibitions and artists’ profiles. By April 1985 it contained some 9,500 records available online with a microfiche alternative for non-Ausinet members.

An appreciation of the diversity of art library users and their information I needs, and of the literature of art, is a necessary prerequisite to consideration I of the objectives of cooperative collection development and resource sharing I among art libraries. The idea of cooperation gathered momentum after World I War 1, after it had become clear that no art library could ever be I comprehensive, and was put into practice after the Second World War, at I local and national levels. Local cooperative schemes were implemented at I Vienna and in Ohio State (ARLO); the Farmington Plan was by contrast an I example of a national programme. In the Federal Republic of Germany the I libraries belonging to the AKB operate a cooperative acquisitions scheme and I receive extra funding to allow them to specialise in particular subject areas in I addition to their normal acquisitions. The Fine Arts Library of Harvard I University participates in the Research Libraries Group Art and Architecture I Program. The concept of assigning different subjects and collection I responsibilities to different libraries in order to achieve comprehensive I coverage makes a lot of sense especially if in academic institutions links can be I developed between the library’s specialisation and the institution’s academic programme.