The Biblioteca degli Uffizi acts as a documentary ‘black box’ for all the notable collecting that has taken place in Florence during the past 500 years. The Library’s collections stretch from the autograph 22-year diary of the 15th-century painter Neri di Bicci and the different editions of Vasari’s Lives of the painters, through the inventories and lists of objects acquired and held successively by the Medici, the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine and the new Italian united kingdom, and to all the memoirs and plans and catalogues of the directors and ‘royal antiquarians’ of the Uffizi Gallery. In addition it contains major works on art history, artists, public and private art collections, exhibitions and many related topics. The Library holds 77,000 printed books and more than 440 manuscripts; its catalogue is shared with the IRIS consortium of art history and humanities libraries and contributes to artlibraries.net through this shared bibliographic database. Several digitisation projects have already been completed or are currently in progress.

The Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence is a library specialising in the arts and humanities that has been open to the general public since the middle of the 18th century. Its founder, Francesco Marucelli, willed his large collection of books to the library. In 1783, the last member of the Marucelli family, Francesco di Roberto Marucelli, left the library around 2500 drawings and 30,000 engravings, and these are now being re-catalogued. The first volume of the engravings can already be consulted on a CD called PRISMA, and the records for the drawings, accompanied by digital images, will be put on a database which it is hoped will be available to scholars worldwide in 2010.

A recent project at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has highlighted the importance of the library of private books built up by its founder. Tasks involved the identification of the items, preservation and conservation activities and bibliographic control of the collection. The most visible result is a website that provides virtual access, as well as a deeper insight, into Calouste Gulbenkian’s personal book collection. The information in the library’s catalogue has been re-organised in order to make it accessible to a wide audience with differing needs and interests.

The library of the Prado Museum has undergone major development in recent years and reached a highpoint with the opening, in 2009, of new premises in the Casón del Buen Retiro. During the past few years three important private libraries have been incorporated into the library and these, taken together with the holdings of early material that already existed and a number of recent acquisitions, have formed an important special collection of some 4500 rare books, mainly on the subject of art history.

The libraries of the national museums in Spain were established during the 19th and 20th centuries. Their holdings are the result of a long tradition of collecting, and together constitute an invaluable bibliographic legacy. With the objective of bringing to light and publicising this rich heritage, these libraries have developed an art libraries network, BIMUS, whose first achievement has been to create an online union catalogue. The project will continue to develop in stages, and its eventual aim is to help the Spanish museum libraries become a reference point for research into art history and the cultural heritage.

Libraries can easily be integrated into a museum’s activities, since museums too have functions that require the processing of information, such as preservation, research and communication. However museums in Turkey were not notable for developing efficient art libraries until Istanbul Museum of Modern Art opened. The distinctiveness of this museum’s library results from a change in the museum environment in Turkey, and the introduction of a number of features that are new in art libraries in this country.

Italy is celebrated for its outstanding patrimony in art and architecture. Less known are its equally rich libraries and archives. English researchers are sometimes daunted by the perceived barriers of language, cataloguing and access when they contemplate exploring these collections, scattered throughout the country in state, academic and ecclesiastical institutions. Steven Miller, acting Head Librarian of Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales, shares his experience of using a wide range of Italian libraries and archives over the last ten years.