Documentation of Spain’s artistic heritage can be found in many places throughout the country. Primary sources are scattered in different archives, including general historical, and regional and municipal, as well as ecclesiastical, military, family, and academy archives. Publications essential to the study of Spanish culture, and some drawings, prints, and photographs, can be found in libraries, notably but by no means exclusively the Biblioteca Nacional. The growth of national awareness of the nation’s artistic heritage can be traced in books and other documents, from the activities of Philip II in the 16th century, to the introduction of photography and the development of its role in recording, multiplying images of, affirming, and popularising, a patrimony worthy of preservation.

A bibliography of bibliographies relevant to the study of the fine arts in Spain. For the majority of entries, the presence of a copy of the work in question in either the Biblioteca Nacional or the Instituto de Información y Documentación en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (ISOC), both in Madrid, is indicated; for items in the Biblioteca Nacional a shelf number is also provided.

In 1989 the Art Libraries Journal published two reports on art libraries in Madrid, by Gabriele Musidlak-Schlott and Elena Santiago. The time is ripe to present a broader profile of this same topic, and this can be done by analysing and updating the information recently published in the Guía de las bibliotecas de arte de Madrid, a directory of art libraries in the city. The directory includes the libraries of those historic institutions dedicated to art teaching (academies and universities) and to the collection and preservation of works of art (museums); it also includes national, academic, public, and other kinds of general art libraries. Current problems faced by art libraries in Madrid are very much the same problems of all Spanish libraries: overcoming the difficulties experienced by users in seeking satisfaction of their information needs, achieving wider and more effective co-ordination, and catching-up with library automation.

The Art Section of the Library of the Centre for Historical Studies in Madrid inherited part of the art library of the former Centro de Estudios Históricos (CEH) and the entire collection of the Instituto de Historia del Arte y Arqueologia ‘Diego Velazquez’. The Art Section is particularly well endowed with monographs on painting from the 15th to the 18th centuries, and on silver, and with guides and catalogues relating to regional art. The collection of periodicals is one of the best of its kind in Madrid. Other notable holdings include the manuscripts of the Catálogos Monumentales Nacionales, a collection of auction catalogues, and a magnificent collection of photographs. The CEH Library has been part of a libraries automation programme, the Programa de Informatización de Bibliotecas del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (PRIBIC) since 1988, and in 1989 made a start on the retrospective conversion of the catalogue records of the Art Section. The Art Section collaborates with other art libraries in Madrid and contributes data to documentation centres such as ISOC and to the Répertoire d’Art et Archéologie (now succeeded by the Bibliography of the History of Art). Projects currently under consideration include indexing and automating the auction catalogues, and copying the photograph collection onto videodisc.

The library of the Instituto de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales was founded in 1961. The library is specially dedicated to Spanish art, architecture and restoration. Now it has about 20,000 volumes and 450 serial publications. The advent of the computer has revolutionised the ability of librarians to respond to their clientele, making libraries truly information centres: the computer system of this library is used to perform such operations as information retrieval and the creation and maintenance of individual in-house generated databases concerning the Spanish cultural heritage.

Following an earlier visit to Madrid which was described in the pages of the Art Libraries Journal, the author travelled to Lisbon in April 1989, once again visiting art libraries, museums, and bookdealers. Several German libraries participate in exchanging publications with the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa.