Reflections on three facets of professional art librarianship as experienced by the author over the past twenty years: the status of librarians, the status of the art library, information storage and retrieval. The University of Manitoba Faculty Association was one of the first in Canada to accept professional librarians as equal to faculty, a major step for the profession. Canadian librarians have played significant roles in the development of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) which from the beginning interested itself in collection development, technical practices of art libraries, and the needs, qualifications and physical surroundings of art librarians. The major technological development of the eighties for art libraries was not the widespread automation of major academic and public libraries, but the introduction of relatively inexpensive personal computers and attendant technology, which gives any library the capacity to access national and international databases and to assemble their files in a format which makes them readily available to a wider public.

Libraries cannot any longer align themselves with their institutions’ priorities because public institutions in Canada are undergoing a fundamental restructuring, the outcome of which is unclear. Federal and provincial governments are transferring responsibilities to the municipal level, putting cultural funding in direct competition with schools, hospitals, social and emergency services. Multi-culturalism will alter the mandate, collections, programming and staffing of cultural institutions. Art librarians, lacking the ability to communicate with decision-makers, need a strategy to allow them to embrace new values and technology or they will be swept aside in the rapid change already evidenced daily which marginalizes the library and calls into question time-honoured traditions such as free access to information.

In 1974 the list of bibliographic works on the literature of Canadian art and architecture totalled 14 items, some in typescript. Since then there has been a surge of bibliographical activity including the creation of databases. Canadian art librarians are urged to lobby publishers to develop more precise index terminology and to improve indexing coverage of Canadian art periodical literature. Librarians should use the computer technology now in place to prepare exhibition histories, exhibition catalogue lists and indexes, while retaining their traditional respect for content, for bibliographic standards, and for the experience and specialized knowledge of qualified bibliographers and indexers.

Art librarians in Canada find themselves in the position of Janus, who simultaneously turns one face to the past and the other toward the future. They have the responsibility to care for collections from the past; at the same time they face a future of continuous change, escalating costs, dwindling resources and institutional agendas. Long-range planning is essential, and an up-to-date collection development policy is fundamental for identifying strengths and weaknesses, confirming commitments and setting priorities. The National Gallery of Canada Library (NGCL) has recently developed a draft collection policy which is now under review within and outside the Gallery. In addition to considerations of selection and bibliographic control, the policy deals with related companion activities such as evaluation, interpretation, and preservation.

Advances in visual arts research are significant, easing the gathering process and expanding the horizons of historical investigation. As visual arts scholarship changes, the vocabulary of art is evolving to describe new concepts, perspectives and concerns. Computer technology has made the location, description and retrieval of art information easier. The computer’s capacity to interrelate text and visual data through image processing has led to new types of reference and research tools. Communication amongst art researchers through electronic networks will transform academic discourse. All of these changes impact on the concept of the art library and the role of art librarians and visual curators in university libraries.

Canada’s primary art libraries, centres of excellence by virtue of their specialized collections in Canadian art and architecture, support a readership geographically beyond their primary clientele. They have come about through the individual commitment of librarians or subject specialists, not because of institutional commitment. Consequently, many lack an appropriate share of institutional support and are threatened by shrinking government funding at all levels. Art librarians are isolated from each other, which makes it easier for institutional administrators to be unaware of their ranking among art history libraries, to impede the sharing of collections, and to ignore the potential for adding prestige to the institution through support of centres of excellence.

Canadian visual resources professionals believe a national strategy would raise the profile of their group who, although well known elsewhere, are not well known in Canada. Technology has made networking to share cataloguing and participation in electronic communications feasible, but many libraries do not have access to national utilities. Although digital capture and interactive electronic image storage and retrieval hold great promise for visual resources, there is a need for funding for retrospective conversion, imaging and the like. Networking makes authority work more important than it has been: a national strategy should include the formulation of a Canadian artist authority tool. Canadian iconography must be a component of any tools developed to describe art objects and their surrogates. In cooperation with CHIN Canadian art archivists and librarians must develop international standards for descriptive cataloguing. In addition, pressure must be brought to bear to end restrictive copyright for library users.

The financial situation of cultural institutions is becoming increasingly perilous, and two years into its new national mandate the Library of the National Gallery of Canada finds its resources absorbed by internal needs and local use. To sustain a vital presence in the community of art information specialists the Library must restrict its contributions to those which have modest or no resource imperatives: generously shared collections; well conceived services which are publicized and accessible; strengthened cataloguing to be shared; attention to preservation; development of expertise to be shared with colleagues and students; initiation and promotion of collaborative projects. As a federal body the National Gallery of Canada is excluded from funding sources available to others, but will support the projects of others. A national task force is needed to outline and develop a Canadian strategic plan for art libraries.