Art libraries have a vital role to play in documenting and disseminating the dynamic cultural identities of Latin American and Caribbean peoples. In Havana, some eight libraries and information centres share the task of documenting the art of Cuba itself, and of other Latin American and Caribbean countries. However, their collections are under-resourced and, in most cases, out-of-date; automation is overdue, and there is an urgent need to create a union catalogue and to develop a network of cooperation. (The text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1994).

Latin American culture is very rich, yet there is insufficient documentation on Latin American art, and much of the documentation which does exist is not adequately covered by the major art indexes. A number of magazines have set out, especially since the 1940s, to disseminate information about Latin American art, but most have been short-lived. The LATINOARTE project, based in the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), aims to develop and to network a database including citations to documentation available in 62 libraries and information centres inside and outside Latin America. Already, some 1,500 records are available on contemporary Latin American art. (The edited text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1994.)

The Department of Latin American Art at the Phoenix Art Museum was established on 1st January 1992, and the Librarian of the Museum accepted the additional role of Curator of the Department. Although the Museum has always collected Mexican art, the new Department is concerned with all of Latin America and especially with the 20th century. Similarly, the Library, which has long-established interests in Mexican art, is now expanding its coverage to reflect the scope of the new Department. Grant support has been forthcoming, and Library purchasing has been enhanced by the generosity of a private donor and by a strategy of using a proportion of each exhibition budget for Library acquisitions. Specialist suppliers have been identified, but it has also been necessary to travel. Better networking is needed between professionals in Latin America and the USA; exchange programs have the potential to be mutually beneficial. (The text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1994).

The work of Latin American women artists is not adequately documented, nor is it sufficiently recognised in the major art reference works and bibliographies which thus fail to facilitate access even to documentation which is available in the USA. The author has been working towards a bibliographic apparatus that will bring together readily available sources on 20th century Latin American women artists. Much material has been found in the Art Exhibition Catalog collection in the Arts Library at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Two Cuban artists, Ana Mendieta and María Martínez-Cañas, are just two of some 200 artists from 20 countries represented in this project. (The revised text of a paper presented to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries at the IFLA General Conference at Havana, August 1995).

A survey of holdings of non-Western art in British, and some North American, art libraries has by and large confirmed that it is poorly represented, and that contemporary non-Western art is especially neglected. Libraries’ freedom to acquire material in this broad area may be restricted or defined by curricula, the interests of clients, and the availability of material, yet libraries which allow themselves to be thus constrained present a distorted and impoverished view of world art. Library classification schemes tend to favour Western art, with non-Western art sometimes being relegated to ‘crafts’ or ‘anthropology’, while subject descriptors sometimes employ inappropriate terminology.

The library and archive at the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London aims to redress the existing lack of resources in the UK relating to contemporary visual arts and artists from a plurality of cultures and cultural backgrounds. Opened in June 1995, the library hopes to become a centre for study, exchange, and promotion of artists working in the UK and abroad. The library will be fully automated by the end of 1995 and hopefully the catalogue will be accessible remotely on the Internet by 1996.