Definitions are offered of the terms ‘fine arts’ and ‘special libraries’. The scope and organisation of fine art libraries are described, followed by a history of the growth of art library societies in various countries, and the movement towards international co-operation. Art libraries are demonstrated to be a suitable category to constitute a new Section in the Special Libraries Division of IFLA.

(The text of a paper presented at the Special Libraries Division Program Meeting of IFLA in Brussels, 8 September, 1977.)

As the first of what is intended to be a regular column devoted to recently published exhibition catalogues, the present list includes catalogues of exhibitions which closed some months ago. Future editions will aim at greater currency (in as far as a deadline two months prior to publication will allow), and will at least give priority to catalogues appearing in the three months between issues.

The primary aim of the column is to draw attention to catalogues which might otherwise escape notice, and to provide a brief description of those catalogues which are less accessible, and difficult to assess before purchasing. Consequently many important catalogues from major exhibiting organisations will be omitted, and the bias inevitably will be towards catalogues from foreign sources.

If, however, you the reader feel that there is a need for evaluative reviewing of certain more readily accessible catalogues as an aid to selection, please make your views known. In addition, the compiler would be very pleased to be notified of catalogues for inclusion in this column, particularly those of provincial exhibitions which sometimes escape national notice, and of which the art librarian on the spot is likely to be aware.

At the recent conference on ‘user education’ it struck me that there was a tendency in librarianship as a whole to see courses of instruction in isolation and to look upon this work done by the librarian as the sole teaching that he or she does. I come from an average Polytechnic and run fairly conventional, even orthodox, formal courses on library use linked with a rather bureaucratic compulsory library tutoring system for dissertations.

Seen in isolation such courses can be given an exaggerated importance when they are, in fact, only a minor part of the process. Supporting and acting as a vital example to such tuition is everything from an initial orientation tour through to information work, to literature guides, to stock selection and relegation policies, indeed the whole library. The long term objective of a Polytechnic Library must be about introducing and promoting an ‘eyes open’ approach to information-seeking in the real world beyond the educational institution. The question that should be asked is, “Is the Polytechnic Library as a whole conceived in such a way as to be as relevant as possible to its prime objective of educating its users — or is it there because-it is there?”

An exhibition of American folk painting: selections from the collection of Mr. &Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III, was shown at THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM RICHMOND, Virginia (29 November 1977-8 January 1978). The 110p. catalogue is notable for the fact that all 51 exhibits are illustrated in colour, and provided with notes, provenances, list of places exhibited, and bibliographic references if appropriate.

An exhibition of European landscape painting, mainly from Western museums, was held at THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART, TOKYO (14 September - 26 October 1978), accompanied by a 220p. catalogue, with Japanese text. However the catalogue contains 120 illustrations of which 24 are in colour, which may make its acquisition worthwhile.

The MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS exhibition of James Tissot prints (25 May — 16 July 1978) was accompanied by a publication declared to be ‘the first complete catalogue raisonné of Tissot’s prints’ as well as catalogue of the exhibition. 88 credited works are documented in the 356p. catalogue, with 200 illustrations. The author is Michael Justin Wentworth.

A variety of elements go to make up the cost of the average academic book, quite apart from the profit margin which must itself be divided between the author, the printer, the publisher and the bookseller. The problems of the economics of book publishing are discussed, together with the implications of technological achievements and limitations. An alternative approach to the sponsoring and marketing of scholarly art books is suggested, one which could result in better produced books at lower prices.

This paper was delivered to the Association of Art Historians Conference at Cardiff on 1 April 1978. Anyone knowledgeable about the technology of printing or the economics of publishing will recognise short cuts and oversimplifications in the argument. I am only too aware of these deficiencies, but I believe that the thesis put forward is still essentially correct. J.N.

The Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum has always collected primary source material. This consists of artists’ letters, diaries, sitters’ books and various personal papers. Or it may be material of a more general kind: inventories, bills, unpublished articles, recipes for paints and varnishes and similar items of use to the Museum departments or to other readers. Occasionally in the past we have been offered material relating to a firm, a person, or a society, which consisted of a mixture of printed matter, photographs, original drawings, manuscript letters etc., which, when received in the Museum, would be divided among the relevant departments — the Library and the Department of Prints and Drawings in particular. The Library continues to acquire manuscript material of the kind mentioned above, and indeed in the last two years has pursued an active policy in this field. As a result we have acquired such varied items as the wardrobe accounts of the Empress Josephine for 1809 (2 large boxes of them), a 16th century herald’s sketchbook, an unpublished history of jade, and a letter from Sir William Nicholson to Siegfried Sassoon agreeing to illustrate ‘Memoirs of a fox-hunting man’. A list of the English accessions is published annually, and all acquisitions are notified to the National Register of Archives. Most of the items were acquired by purchase (e.g. from booksellers’ lists or auction sales), but there have also been some welcome donations.

Within higher education courses are being designed which emphasise the acquisition of learning skills rather than the absorption of ‘blocks’ of subject knowledge. Such courses indicate the way in which library-based learning skills can be developed alongside other learning skills, and also show the necessity of the librarian’s involvement in course design teams. This approach to library teaching has been developed most, perhaps, in art and design libraries where the demands of the ‘hidden curriculum’ have always been felt, if not overtly acknowledged.

(The text of a paper presented at the ARLIS Seminar on User Education held at Leeds Polytechnic, 7-8 April, 1978.)

The modern image library, with its large collections in a multiplicity of formats, requires sophisticated systems of classification, indexing and information retrieval. Alongside the traditional art historical approach to the reproductions it contains, iconographic indexes are being developed which treat art as a language and analyse signs, symbols and meanings. Given the increase in iconographic and iconological research there is a need for the co-ordination and standardisation of indexing techniques at an international level.

The literature of art traditionally concentrates on the fine arts and, to a lesser extent, the applied and decorative arts. There is a vast amount of spadework to be done in researching the history of design (especially 20th century design). Often, periodical articles or exhibition catalogues are the only source of published documentation. Since exhibitions are dealt with in another section of the journal, here I shall look at some recent books. I have further limited this selection to exclude architecture and the graphic arts. I have chosen books which are visually stimulating and of use to the practical designer as well as works of a more academic approach.

The slide collection at the Bibliotheque Forney is an extension of this library’s documentation of the decorative arts and crafts for the benefit of the craftsmen and public of Paris. The collection consists mainly of sets of slides, copies of which are available for loan.

Slides present problems of retrieval which have not always been solved by those responsible for their organisation. Each image can be seen, sought, and labelled in a variety of ways. Organisation of the slides themselves according to subject is essential to facilitate browsing, which is the normal method of selection on the part of borrowers, and which generates ideas and reveals new or alternative material. The borrowing of slides is a major problem which tends to be solved most effectively by relatively informal systems. The slide collection should be conveniently located so far as the user is concerned; even when this can be achieved the development of private collections by individuals or teaching departments should be regarded as complementing the central collection. An ‘ideal’ organisation is proposed, based on conclusions drawn from a survey of slide collections which included interviews with curators, users, and non-users (British Library R.&D. Report no. 5309, 1976)

In 1975 the Library at Preston Polytechnic undertook the task of reorganising and developing a collection of slides previously in the custody of the School of Art and Design. Circumstances dictated that the collection be organised for maximum use and minimal maintenance. The slides have been classified by 18th Dewey and housed in transparent sheets of pockets suspended in filing cabinets, enabling borrowers to browse and help themselves.