The preservation of artists’ papers and other art source material has steadily increased since the Second World War. Art archives include national repositories, archives attached to museums and libraries, archives devoted to a single person or institution, and ‘multiple collection archives’. Archival materials range from manuscript and photographic records to original works of art. Some archival materials have been published in microform formats; many others have not, and potential users depend on being able to locate them by means of various finding aids. Unless supported by public funds, the archives themselves depend on grants or sponsorship. Art archives may be staffed by archivists, museum curators, or librarians; future developments require not merely cooperation but also a ‘harmonization’ of these three professions, and a critical approach to the application of new technologies.

The Japan Art Documentation Society (JADS) was founded in April. Inspired by developments both within Japan and abroad, and by the IFLA Section of Art Libraries, JADS has set out to embrace the common interests of library and museum professionals as represented by an integrated concept of “art documentation”. Essentially, the Society represents a collective response to the challenge and potential of the computer - to the benefits it can bring to, and the methodologies it requires of, the organising of art objects, art images, and art information. (The Society’s “prospectus”, from its first Newsletter, is appended).

ARLIS/UK & Eire has developed a thorough and practical strategy regarding the national provision of art serials in libraries. The keystone of this strategy is the ARLIS Union List of Art Periodicals, shortly to appear in its fourth edition. Titles of new serials are noted in the ARLIS News-sheet. Data in the Union List facilitates co-operation between, and co-ordination of the holdings of, different libraries, and is used in particular to identify those libraries which are the only locations for specific titles. ARLIS is determined that all art journals covered by the major indexes and abstracts are accessible in the U.K. and Eire; at the same time, the attention of publishers of indexes will be drawn to serials which are not indexed. ARLIS is represented on the advisory boards of major indexing and abstracting services, and in addition has completed a survey of ‘in-house’ indexes maintained by different libraries. Further developments are likely to depend, not merely on the co-operative efforts of members and on co-operation with other bodies, but also on the availability of funds and, hopefully, of a researcher.

During October, 1987, Nicole Picot, arts librarian of the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, worked at the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She also visited several other British art libraries in order to gain a wider view. Her report is printed below. As part of the same arrangement, Gillian Varley from the National Art Library spent two weeks, in June, 1988, at the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information; her report, and extracts from the diary of her visit, are also published in this issue of the Arts Libraries Journal.

While a great deal of the material evidence of Australian art of the past has been lost as a result of bushfires, other natural causes, accidents, or carelessness, even more has been deliberately destroyed. Artists or their families have often wished to erase the memory of convict or immigrant origins, youthful indiscretions, or previous marriages. The failure of national and state governments to formulate policies to ensure the preservation of business archives (including the archives of architectural firms and art galleries) continues to allow valuable material to be lost. Surviving archival material is often dispersed, occasionally inaccessible, and not infrequently inadequately catalogued. Fortunately nationwide initiatives have been launched – not a moment too soon – by the National Library of Australia and the Library of the Australian National

Following Nicole Picot’s visit to England, the subject of the report printed above, Gillian Varley from the National Art Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London spent two weeks at the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, during the summer of 1988. She also visited a number of other art libraries in Paris. The text of her report is followed by extracts from her diary of her trip.

Since its formation in October 1983, ARLIS Norge, a society of Norwegian art libraries and librarians, has provided a professional focus for art librarians within Norway while at the same time maintaining a high level of participation in international activities. A directory of Norwegian art libraries has recently been published. (An English version of an article first published in ARLIS-nytt, 1988 no.4 p.3-8)

Photographic collections are relatively undeveloped in Japan, although in the last decade a national photographic museum has been established, and other museums have opened departments of photography. Problems of access to collections of photographs of works of art have impeded the study of art history, but the capacity of new technologies to store, and to facilitate the retrieval of, visual images, is beginning to transform the situation.

In March 1988 the author travelled to Madrid to visit Spanish art libraries, museums, and bookdealers. The trip was funded by the Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft. This report stresses the value of personal visits and of direct contact in fostering working relationships.

During the last three years, following the 2nd European Conference of the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at Amsterdam in 1986, art librarians in Madrid have been meeting together to discuss common problems and co-operative projects. At the very first meeting it was agreed to compile a directory of art libraries in Madrid as a first priority; a preliminary listing was produced in 1987, and a fuller version, scheduled for publication in July 1989, was in preparation at the time of writing. Also at the first meeting, the need for a union list of periodicals was identified; a provisional list, of current titles, was completed in June 1987, and was converted to computer-readable form by the Biblioteca y Centro de Documentación of the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; holdings of non-current periodicals will now be incorporated as well. It is also hoped to devise a co-operative acquisitions scheme to ensure the best possible provision of Spanish art periodicals without putting too great a burden on any one library. During 1989, a series of visits is taking place as the best way of familiarising art librarians with the collections and services of the different art libraries.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, itself an archive of material culture, houses several collections of archival records. The Museum’s Registered Papers are divided between the Museum itself, which holds those papers relating to objects in the Museum, and the Public Record Office, where papers relating to Museum buildings and administration can be found; all papers produced since 1984 are to be housed together in a newly established V & A Archive. The quality of the archive of Registered Papers is uneven due to the lack of a controlling and unifying policy; this, and questions of conservation and administration, are being addressed as part of the current restructuring of the Museum. For the same reason the archives of the different Departments, though important, vary considerably not only in content but also in their organisation. The National Art Library, part of the V & A, includes archival collections of ephemera, comprising examples of printing and graphic design, and of manuscripts, including artists’ papers; it also includes the Archive of Art and Design, founded in 1978 to avoid the splitting up of significant archives between the Museum’s Departments.

A number of sources of inspiration and information, in addition to books on costume history, are invaluable to the fashion designer and the historian of fashion. They include predictions of style and market trends, visual sources of creative inspiration, and a variety of forms of historical evidence. Sources of information on style and market trends include forecasting services, trade magazines, newspapers, advertising material, and fashion magazines. Sources from which the designer can draw inspiration include paintings and visual imagery from the theatre, cinema, and popular culture. Historical evidence includes portrait paintings, fashion plates and magazines, photographs, literary sources, pattern books, and trade catalogues. Above all, magazines and serial-type publications are crucially important, for the sake of their currency, and later from a historical perspective; access to magazines is facilitated by indexing services.

Amongst the treasures of the British Architectural Library are the RIBA Nomination Papers which have been completed by all prospective members of the Royal Institute of British Architects since its foundation in 1834 and which now form part of the RIBA Archive. These papers are currently the basis for an innovative database project entitled British Architectural Biography 1834-1914, which is being funded over three years by the Getty Grant Program of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

The momentum which it is hoped will lead to the launch of an Italian art libraries’ association began with the IFLA conferences at Tokyo and Brighton. Subsequently, librarians in Florence joined together to organise the 3rd European Conference of the IFLA Section of Art Libraries which was held in Florence in November 1988. Meetings of Italian art librarians, called to discuss the formation of a national association, were held at Florence and, one month later, in Rome; as a result, a working group has been set up to consider a constitution. In spite of the lack of a strong tradition of cooperation, the progress which has already been made seems certain to continue.

During the 1970s and 1980s, a number of American artists have made use of clothing as an art medium. Their work constitutes a new art movement, drawing on, and straddling divisions between, Pop Art, performing arts, popular culture, and fashion; it merits more thorough and accessible documentation, and there is a need for art libraries to make available the elusive information which does exist.

The information-gathering activities of art historians have been studied from three different perspectives: in terms of the books they use; through their own accounts of their working processes; and by informal, systematic observation, written up as ‘user studies’, by art librarians. While observation implies objectivity, a distance between observer and observed, in practice art librarians are very much involved with the art historian in the work of art history and in the development of its methodologies.