L’Association des Bibliothécaires Français vient de tenir son congrès annuel à la Rochelle les 19, 20 et 21 mai 1979. 450 participants ont débattu les problèmes de l’information et’de la formation de l’utilisateur.

Plusieurs bibliothèques, notamment la bibliothèque universitaire de Montpellier et la bibliothèque du 5ème arrondissement à Paris ont présenté des montages audio-visuels qui ont pour but d’informer le lecteur sur les fonds de ces bibliothèques et les modalités d’utilisation.

Following the publication of ‘Art libraries in polytechnics’ in Art Libraries Journal, 4(1), Spring 1979, it seems appropriate to outline some of the reservations towards it that have been voiced by several Polytechnic art librarians, lest what has appeared as an ARLIS policy statement be taken to imply a total commitment to it by all of those whom it concerns most.

A certain amount of historical background seems necessary to cast light on the introductory statement which appeared alongside the statement when published.

The Union Catalogue of Art Books in Edinburgh Libraries is, to the best of my knowledge, the only catalogue of its kind relating specifically to art in this country. It offers a service which other art librarians might be asked to offer, and therefore the experience we in Edinburgh have gained of the advantages and problems associated with a catalogue of this kind may benefit other librarians who might contemplate offering a similar service. The problems we have experienced stem partly, as we shall see, from factors which are intrinsic in such a catalogue, but also partly from the early development of this particular one, and for this reason I propose to start by giving you a brief sketch of its history.

The general survey I am about to treat you to is almost entirely based on the information supplied by librarians, teachers and curators of museums and galleries. May I say now how grateful I am to those who have been so generous with their time in telling me most of what I know about the subject. I regard my role this evening as essentially one of disseminating the knowledge of others which in this field does not always circulate as freely as it might.

What has rather surprised me while preparing this talk is how quite important material in one centre is unknown in another. My talk will serve some use, therefore, if it helps to rectify this situation.

This paper is a revised version of that published by the Scottish Georgian Society under the same title in 1969. As before, I have endeavoured to list the main documentary and printed sources available for the study of Scottish architectural history without in any way attempting to compile a complete bibliography of Scottish architecture. The arrangement of the text follows that adopted by H. M. Colvin in his Guide to the Sources of English Architectural History (Pinhoms, 1967) to which reference should also be made. I should again like to acknowledge the assistance given to me in the preparation of this guide by various friends and colleagues, and in particular by Dr A.L. Murray, of the Scottish Record Office.

The Foundation-stone of the City’s Central Library was laid in 1887 by Andrew Carnegie and in June 1890 the library opened its doors. The architect of this French-Renaissance style building was George Washington Browne.

The Central Library is “Subject departmentalized” - there being libraries devoted to Local History, Scottish subjects, Music and Fine Art. The latter library occupies the top floor of a corner site on George IV Bridge/Victoria Street and was opened in 1935/36.

The recent exhibition at the Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield, Homespun to Highspeed. A century of British Design 1880-1980, provides a useful cue for a look at some of the developments in design and design history publishing over the past year. Even though the Sheffield exhibition was probably the largest single exhibition to survey the history of British design of this period so far staged, there are still many aspects of this period that cry out for exhibition and further study. Until this happens the documentation of this exhibition will provide a succinct but very selective personal introduction. The catalogue (£1.30 post free from Sheffield City Art Galleries) provides a brief illustrated summary by movements and decades whilst the enclosed exhibits list might help lead to examples nearer home. A photographic survey on slides is being compiled and I hope that the means may be found to make this more widely available as a study/teaching resource as the exhibition has now closed and will not be travelling elsewhere.

The concept of artistic knowledge is considered, that which is unique to the artist and that which can be acquired by other means, particularly from the storehouse of a library’s collections. The problem of art being at a remove in a library can be countered by collections of ‘real’ art e.g. artists’ books, and by outgoing, generous art librarianship. The art library can also make its own contribution to the maintenance of traditional artistic knowledge by concentrating at least a part of its collections on whatever is unique in its own area, thus counterbalancing the tendency to uniform, ‘monochrome’ coverage.

Because this review will be partial in its survey and somewhat critical in tone, it may be as well to begin by applauding the overall achievement of AACR. Its long-awaited publication in 1967 helped enormously to clear the cataloguing air. Here at last was a convincing demonstration that behind all the craft mysteries of cataloguing there lay a logic, a rationale; that it was not just a matter of following a few rule of thumb procedures. For dealing with the general run of modern printed texts in English-speaking libraries the new code promised well.

The recent British Library sponsored user study of RILA is described which demonstrates the usefulness of RILA both as an acquisition and as an inter-lending tool and which also shows that professional art librarianship has yet to reach some of the smaller art schools where it is most needed. The next major project of the RILA UK office is outlined, namely the possible reactivating of the Bibliography of the History of British Art (BHBA) into the Bibliography of British Art (BBA) using on-line access to the entire data base of RILA.