Trevor Fawcett has retired from art librarianship. An era is thus delineated. While Trevor had published on art library issues before the birth of ARLIS/UK in 1969, none of these articles had the impact of a short letter which appeared in the Library Association Record in March 1968, asking if there was any interest in co-operation amongst art librarians.

This was the acorn from which grew the oak tree of ARLIS/UK, and ultimately, through Trevor’s role in planning the first International Art Libraries Conference in 1976, the thicket of trees represented by the IFLA Section of Art Libraries, which now shades several continents.

One might say that Trevor Fawcett was fortunate to raise the question of co-operation at a time when the soil for an art library organisation was exceptionally fertile. But one can also propose that the incipient sub-profession of art librarianship was extremely fortunate in having Trevor Fawcett in the right place at the right time.

The articles in this issue of the Art Libraries Journal all relate to developments in fine art services in public libraries in the United Kingdom. Denmark and Germany.

Within the United Kingdom the City of Westminster’s Fine Art Library has been in existence for twenty years; the great Mitchell Library in Glasgow opened its Fine Arts Department in 1981; Essex County Library has an innovative and expanding Fine Arts service. Subject specialisation, it would seem, is alive, well and flourishing.

A brief report of the 1985 IFLA Council, held in Chicago 16-24 August, with details of attendees, papers, visits and meetings, and particular emphasis on the Section of Art Libraries Preconference.

Basing his arguments on Ranganathan’s tenets of librarianship, the writer challenges art librarians to question many of their attitudes to users, and the effect of these on the universal availability of art documentation, from the ‘user friendliness’ of libraries, through practical techniques of librarianship which assist users, to implications for interlibrary co-operation worldwide. This is a slightly revised version of a paper delivered to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries Preconference in Chicago, August 1985.

Bradford had the first central library building in this country designed specifically on the subject departmentalised principle. Bradford is also the first to abandon it. The rise and fall of Bradford’s subject departments are charted and reasons are given why they were no longer felt to be appropriate in the 1980s. Some of the disadvantages of subject departments are noted.

The views expressed here are the author’s own and not necessarily those of the City Librarian or his Management Team.

This paper describes the botanical prints and drawings collection in the Botany Library, Department of Library Services, British Museum (Natural History). A short history of the collection is followed by details of acquisitions policy, curation, conservation and uses made of the collections. A selected bibliography of works, including those relating specifically to the Collections complete the paper.

A report of the first European Conference of the IFLA Section of Art Libraries held in Geneva 13-16 March 1985. The theme ‘Iconographic collections and libraries’, was explored in some forty papers from speakers of seven nationalities: Teaching iconography; Iconographic collections; Users and means of access to documents.

‘Universal Availability of Publications’ (UAP) and the universal availability of art publications should be considered in the context of ‘one world’, a world in which we all share responsibility for our fellow human beings. In this context both librarianship and art, and thus art librarianship also, should be seen as services rendered to humankind at large. IFLA’s UAP programme has been conceived as a service, intended to supply genuine human needs, and art librarians, who are constantly frustrated in their efforts to serve users of art libraries by the limitations to the availability of art documentation, can readily identify a need for ‘Universal Availability of Art Publications’. Nevertheless, a worldwide programme of this nature is in danger, first, of being pursued for its own sake (or for the sake of ‘needs’ which are imagined, over-emphasised, or misconceived), and second, of reinforcing cultural imperialism. Safeguards include acceptance of the necessity to proceed step by step in pursuit of a success which can never be complete; the fact that UAP is founded on local collections developed to meet local needs; recognition of the imbalance in the production of publications in different parts of the world; and recognition of the importance of unpublished documentation and of ‘publications’ which do not as yet exist. A greater emphasis on increasing the availability, and generating the production, of publications from countries which publish relatively little, is proposed. A fourth safeguard ought to derive from the professional ethics and grass-roots experience of librarians, who serve and identify with library users, actual and potential. The pursuit of universal availability of art publications should be based on realistic assessment of what is feasible, and on local, regional, and national resources, with all possible encouragement being given to developing countries to document their own arts. Art librarians may be paying too little attention to the needs of users and, especially, of non-users of art libraries, and should be aware of the barriers to availability which can result from the prevalence of a narrow, elitist conception of ‘Art’ and from the provision of library services primarily for an elite. Without neglecting the service of scholarship, the art library profession should try to shift the balance of its commitment towards the provision of a service for everyone, everywhere, so that our interpretation and pursuit of the ‘Universal Availability of Art Publications’ truly reflects a vision of our whole world’s heritage and practice ‘of divers arts’.

This is the text of a paper presented to the Section of Art Libraries, at the 1985 IFLA Council in Chicago.

In the Summer of 1984 the Library of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, re-opened in a purpose-designed space, following the expansion and renovation of the Museum by Cesar Pelli. This article traces the history of the Library from its origin at the foundation of the Museum in 1929, to date, and describes the scope of the present collection and some of its particular strengths.

Aby Warburg used a system of screens, wooden frames covered with fabric, upon which he displayed photographs. He could compare images, manipulate them in different arrangements, and order them in support of a visual argument. The computer and the video screen allow present day art historians to contemplate the creation of a much larger and more sophisticated version of Warburg’s screens in an ideal network of images and data. Images of works of art will be identified by basic information and accompanied with all the relevant information of a full catalogue entry. Correctly formulated this information can be retrieved in various ways to allow for making numerous connections between works of art and revealing a variety of relationships between them. Each work can thus be studied within a visual and historical context or compared with works of art sharing similar characteristics from widely different cultures and periods. The number of works of art existing in the world is very large, and the information which may be recorded about them is immense. Forming the ideal network is a considerable undertaking and one that will take the help and co-operation of the whole art historical community.

This paper traces the development of the study of the history of design, from problems of definition to the organisations and publications which have appeared to support this area of study. This is a revised version of a paper delivered to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries Preconference in Chicago, August 1985.

This article outlines the origin and development of picture lending services in Germany and the United Kingdom and explains the cross-fertilisation of ideas between Germany and the United Kingdom which has led to the present spread of collections in both countries. However economic constraints are now affecting the working of existing services and limiting the establishment of new ones, and new methods of financial distribution are necessary.

Some observations on the compilation of a dictionary of artists from the London Borough of Sutton; with an account of sources and methods.

This paper was read at the Planning Conference for the projected Artists’ Papers Index, held at the British Library in September 1985. Dr. Brown discusses some problems inherent in the definition of such an index or register of artists’ papers. The author, who is responsible for manuscripts and archives relating to artists and art history in the National Library of Scotland, goes on to outline the resources for art-historical study to be found in one large general manuscript collection-a major collection that is part of an institution with a long-established and very active acquisitions policy in this field.

The Sohm Archive, until now mainly known only to specialists, a multisubject private collection of documents and art from recent decades, was purchased in 1981 for the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, and at their re-opening in Spring 1984 the Archive was for the first time made available to the public. Its present Curator here explains the origins of the collection.

This paper describes the establishment and scope of a new co-operative cataloguing venture involving the Library of Congress, Worldwide Books and the Boston Public Library, with the aim of increasing the number of catalogue records for exhibition catalogues which may be shared by other libraries. It is the revised version of a paper delivered to the ARLIS/UK & Eire Annual Conference in Bristol, April 1985.

The article, after an introduction giving an outline history of the Mitchell Library, looks at the creation of a specialist arts department within an established collection, makes comparisons between the service in the past and the present, and tries to identify any changes, particularly in patterns of use and readership.