Museums are facing increased difficulties in supplying lecturers with slides of items in their collection. This is particularly so where they have no photographic studio on the premises and have to call in outside commercial photographers.

The cost of making a good quality lecture slide in terms of the lighting set-up, travelling, and man-hours, is almost as great as that involved in making a transparency for a publisher. One photographer working for a UK provincial gallery was charging £26 for a colour slide in 1975! This is, of course, quite exceptional, but such a service can never be cheap in future.

Although the ARLIS International Conference in April was primarily devoted to the study of art periodicals, considerable discussion, and one formal session, concerned the desirability of an international art libraries society, ARLIS International. With delegates from Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Eire, France, Germany, Holland, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, it was apparent that some consensus of opinion could be taken which would reflect the need for international cooperation between art libraries.

Art speaks with many tongues, the immediacy of the image requiring no translation. One does not need fluent Italian to appreciate Titian, nor French to enjoy the Impressionists. The art of China means a great deal to many who think of Chinese as the world’s least learnable language, and by whom a taste for Chinese music has yet to be acquired. The visual arts of different countries and culture-groups have had, and still have, enough in common for contact between them to be mutually stimulating; an interest in Man as maker of images and co-creator of the visible world, implies concern for art the world over.

Sometimes I wonder if I am in the right society.

Just after the inauguration of ARLIS, when I was still thinking about joining, there appeared in the ARLIS Newsletter (nos. 2 and 4) two short articles which suggested to me the sort of society ARLIS might become. Written by Frank Hatt, they were called ‘Is your toolkit really necessary?’ and ‘Toolkits again’. The author took the information needs of library users to be the art librarian’s first priority; he dismissed a good many bibliographical tools in our field and called for investigation by ARLIS into exactly what the needs of users of art libraries are. He was thinking on the lines of a cooperative user research project based on case studies, presumably to be published in the Newsletter.

The Times Literary Supplement on March 21st 1975 printed an article by you entitled ‘Fashions in fashion history’. Subsequently you have said that your aim in publishing that piece was ‘to try to persuade publishers to put out some useful material’, such as annotated transcriptions of important inventories listing items of dress, and a series of books dealing with changes in fashion in particular places at particular times. What do you see as the major gaps in the literature of fashion at the present time?

The post of Academic Librarian for Art and Design was established at Leicester Polytechnic in 1973, as part of a team of tutor librarians having no library duties other than reader instruction. Several kinds and degrees of instruction have been attempted, ranging from formal lectures to the ‘point-of-need’ method, and most have been found to have both advantages and disadvantages. Interest can be aroused by drawing attention to the variety of materials, access to which is gained through familiarity with bibliographic tools. The tutor librarian’s role implies involvement in the presentation of the library by means of guiding and publications; but when the tutor librarian’s is a separate post, additional to those professional library staff who are responsible for running the library, difficulties and conflict may be unavoidable.

Some reflections on the photographic research undertaken by the Arts Faculty Liaison Librarian, as part of the preparation for publication of the texts for the Open University course, ‘Architecture and Design 1890-1939’.

Each of the 120-odd delegates to the International Conference went away with a different impression. Anne Dallet’s report draws on one of these; it will, we hope, refresh readers’ memories of their conference, as well as informing those who could not attend.

Certain themes threaded the whole weekend. The significance of the art periodical, especially in recording contemporary art in the context of its times, for that time and for times to come, was continuously reaffirmed; on the other hand, the problems of publishing and acquiring those ‘little’ magazines which can play such an important part in this process, were raised time and time again. But also, some specific proposals won the approval of the conference, and deserve to be noted here whether or not they are capable of achievement. (Some may be more likely to be translated into effective action if the spirit of the conference can be embodied by an international organisation representing art librarians everywhere). These were

• (1) that a comprehensive bibliography of art periodicals, and union lists of library subscriptions to and holdings of art magazines, should be compiled;

• (2) that art librarians should bring periodicals in need of reprinting to the notice of publishers;

• (3) that art librarians should join in persuading magazine publishers to refrain from extracting from libraries a considerably higher subscription rate than that offered to individuals;

• (4) that a periodicals subscriptions agency is needed, which will specialise in art, and with whom art librarians could confidently place all their orders (including orders for ‘little’ magazines).

The Costume and Fashion Research Centre at Bath complements the Museum of Costume in the same city, providing a study collection of costume and a library of primary illustrative and written source material and of relevant reference works. It is open, for reference purposes, to students, and the public. Similar centres could usefully be developed to complement costume collections elsewhere.

An account of the scope, aims, and organisation of the Central Lettering Record, a photographic collection of lettering housed in the library of the Central School of Art & Design, London.

In 1970 the Faculty of Art and Design Library at Bristol Polytechnic accepted responsibility for a slide collection, the reorganisation of which was guided by information received from other art libraries, and was further refined following the removal of the collection into the library in 1974. Slides are filed alphabetically by country, artist, and other criteria, within the categories of Fine Art, Architecture, and Design, and a notation has been derived from this arrangement. A fourth section of the collection houses sets of slides.

Approximately 6,000 current periodicals may be considered relevant to the art library, though no one art library can provide more than a fraction of these. Aids to the selection of an essential ‘core’ collection include specialized bibliographies; for access to periodicals outside its means or scope the art library must rely on cooperation with other libraries. Micro-publishing can play a vital part in facilitating global access. to art periodicals; meanwhile the art librariun can make a more informed selection of titles for a particular library, by analysing the needs of the library’s actual and potential users, and by studying what has been written on the history of art periodicals and of their usefulness. Excerpts from a paper presented to the ARLIS International Conference on art periodicals at the University of Sussex on April 9th.

The Slide Library of the Design Council offers a reference and a loan service to institutions and individuals; copies of some slides are available for purchase. Slides are acquired from external sources or are specially made by the Design Council; they illustrate the history of design as well as contemporary design. The slides are classified by subject, and are listed in a published catalogue. The Slide Library also houses an archive which can be consulted by researchers.

The Archive of ICOGRADA, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations, provides a reference centre and a hire service based on a collection of original examples of graphic design, slides, films, and recordings of lectures on design. The Archive is housed at Bolton College of Art and Design, Lancashire.

While Printer to the University of Oxford, John Johnson began to collect printed ephemera as evidence of the history of social life in general and of printing in particular. The present-day collection, the scope and organisation of which is described, is held in the Bodleian Library.

The role, as a source of information and as a vehicle of art itself, the writing, and the future, of the contemporary art magazine. A paper presented to the ARLIS International Conference on art periodicals at the University of Sussex on April 9th.

The production and distribution of a contemporary livre d’artiste

A personal choice of European and American booksellers who specialise in out-of-print material on the fine and applied arts.

A survey of the English, European, and American magazines which might have influenced 19th century architecture in Australia and other places distant from the centres of urban industrial civilisation, and of Australian architectural magazines of the same period.