Newsletter of the Section of Art Libraries (Web edition)

no. 44 (1999, no 1)

Bangkok 1999 IFLA Conference 20-28 August

The Section of Art Libraries will be meeting as follows. For your convenience the main IFLA activities are also included. Two of the art libraries meetings have been scheduled off-site: the Standing Committee meeting I at the National Museum, and the workshop at the Silpakorn University. All the other meetings will take place at the main convention center (BITEC).

Friday, 20 August

Afternoon (BITEC)

Special Libraries Coordinating Board I (for elected officers only)

Saturday, 21 August

National Museum

09.00-11.00 Art Libraries Standing Committee meeting I

11.00-12.30 Visit to the National Museum

12.30-13.30 Lunch at the National Museum

13.30-16.00 Visits (optional):

1. The Temple of Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace
2. The Temple of Pra Chetupon (behind the Temple of Emerald Buddha)

(Both have English guides)

Late afternoon (BITEC)

Caucuses

Evening

IFLA Officers reception

Sunday, 22 August

Morning (BITEC)

Introduction to IFLA newcomers

Core programme open forum

UNESCO open forum

Discussion Groups

Half-day workshops

Afternoon (BITEC)

Council I

Evening (BITEC)

Exhibition opening and reception

Monday, 23 August

Morning (BITEC)

Division open forums

Section and Round Table open sessions

Afternoon (BITEC)

Guest lecture

Opening session followed by plenary session

Evening

Gala reception, dinner and cultural performance

Tuesday, 24 August

All day (BITEC)

Section and Round Table programme sessions

Midday (BITEC)

13.00-15.20 Art Libraries Open Session

Guest lecture

Poster sessions

Evening

Library receptions

Wednesday, 25 August

All day (BITEC)

Section and Round Table programme sessions

Study tours, library visits (1/2 day)

Midday (BITEC)

Guest lecture

Poster sessions

Thursday, 26 August

Silpakorn University

09.00-12.00 Art Libraries Section Workshop

12.00-13.00 Lunch at Silpakorn University

13.00-14.00 Workshop (Continued)

14.00-15.00 Visit to the Silpakorn University

• Library
• Art Galleries (University and Faculty of Fine Arts)
• Book Center

15.00-16.30 Visit to the Department of Fine Arts

• Workshop Room of Prof. Silpa Bhirasri (one of the greatest artists in Thai history)
• Original Monument Workshop

16.30-19.00 Dinner and shopping

19.00-21.00 Visiting bookstores

1. Asia Books at Siam Discovery Branch
2. Kinokuniya Book Store at the Emporium Center

Friday, 27 August

Morning (BITEC)

Art Libraries Standing Committee meeting II

Special Libraries Coordinating Board II (for elected officers only)

Afternoon (BITEC)

Council II followed by closing session

Saturday, 28 August

Tour day

Registration

The registration fee for the IFLA conference delegates is 350 US$ before May 15 (later 425 US$). For accompanying persons the price is 200 US$ before May 15 (later 250 US$). Registration forms can be obtained from the IFLA '99 Conference secretariat,

Information about the Bangkok conference can be found at: http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/65intro.htm

Conference hotel

The conference organisers recommend that if we wish to stay together we should register as soon as possible because rooms cannot held specially. We selected two hotels which are situated within ten minutes walking from each other.

• Royal Orchid Sheraton: single US$ 100, twin US$110
• Holiday Inn Crown Plaza: single US$75, twin US$80

Open Session Programme

formal papers

To be held at the main convention center (BITEC)

Theme

Electronic art information - creating it, disseminating it, archiving it - is it worth the cost?

1. Connecting Art Images and Bibliographic Data through Collaboration: Creating a Tool for Distance Education
   Roger Durbin, Associate Dean University Libraries; Head Collection Management, Grant Administrator Akron Art Museum ArtSmart Project, University of Akron, Akron OH, USA
2. Network Access to Visual Information: A Study of Costs and Uses
   Howard Besser, Associate Professor UCLA Department of Library & Information Science School of Information Management & Systems, University of California, Berkeley CA, USA
3. Las bases de datos sobre artes plásticas y arquitectura mexicanes: necesidad, logros, problemática
   Elsa Barbarena, Universidad nacional autonoma de Mexico, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Mexico

Workshop programme

interactive, short presentations

To be held at the Silpakorn University auditorium, on Thursday 26 August, followed by an elaborate programme consisting of a visit to the Silpakorn University Library, Art Galleries and Book Center. In the afternoon a tour at the Silpakorn University Department of Fine Arts is scheduled with visits to the workshop room of one of the greatest artists in Thai history, prof. Silpa Bhirasri, and the original monument workshop.

Theme

Blurring the boundaries: Should art librarians work with archivists, curators, educators, or become more specialized?

1. Electronic Art Resources in Thailand (ERA)
   Poot Veraprasert, Director Silpakorn University Central Library, Bangkok, Thailand
2. The Art Librarian as Mediator: the Art of being Librarian
   Petra van den Born, Librarian Amsterdam Historical Museum, Amsterdam
   and Wilbert Helmus, Head reading room, Research Library of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3. The Role of Bibliographic Instruction in the Electronic Art Library
   Aniko L. Halverson, Reference Coordinator and Instruction Librarian, California Institute of the Arts,Valencia CA, USA
4. Collaboration, Distribution, and Specialization in an Art School Library
   Joyce Volker, Manager of the Institute of the Arts Library and Resource Centre at the Australia National University, Canberra ACT, Australia

Report from France by Nicole Picot

Our main activities for 1998 have been:

• a working group for the enhancement of the Rameau authority file in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France. One sub-group now enhances the architectural vocabulary.
• one-day study sessions.

1. Second international professional congress of contemporary art organised by the Ministry of Culture, at Tours, on November 26/28 1998. The Internet has been proposed as a means of establishing contact and sharing information with those involved in the documentation of contemporary art. This proposition is followed by two colleagues in the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, and the Nouveau Musée, Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne. Three sites were presented:
   • Critica (www.uhb.fr/alc/aca/rica/critica.html),
   • Synesthesie (http://www.metafort.com/synesthesie/),
   • Art public (www.art-public.com).

   We are establishing a choice of the best sites for our readers.

2. Study day on the 28th of September 1998 for all art libraries of the Provence-Côte d'Azur region in Nice. The subject was 'Museums libraries'.

Our next national meeting will be held in the new Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg, 18/20 June 1999. Our topic will be 'Internet and the art and architecture libraries'.

For more information about French art libraries see: Art libraries journal, vol. 23 (1998) no. 3. This special number is entirely devoted to French art librarianship.

Report from Finland by Eila Rämö

The MUISTI Project (1996-1998)

http://linnea.helsinki.fi/memory/muisti.html

The aim of the MUISTI (Memory) project was to promote the usage of the Finnish cultural heritage by utilizing new information technology. All together 6 organizations participated in the project. The national material in the collections of the participating archives, libraries, and museums complement each other and give the user a good picture of the diversity of the cultural heritage of Finland. The digitized material includes text, images, manuscripts and maps. The project resulted in e.g.:

• a search service in both local and networked environments through the MUISTI reference database and the local image databases of the participating institutions (HELMI, SKS, VOLTTI, NARC, Bildarvet)
• image- and textmaterials in digitized form, totally ca 3,000 publications and 8,500 images
• rules for cataloguing and indexing of the images

The Virtual Library Project (1996 -)

http://www.jyu.fi/library/virtuaalikirjasto/engvirli.htm

The Finnish Virtual Library Project is developing internet services for the use of the Finnish scientific community. The project, partly financed by the Ministry of Education, was initiated in 1996. At the moment, the project involves 16 organizations, mainly university libraries. The Finnish Virtual Library is a subject gateway, which contains descriptions of Internet resources covering 51 branches of science with links to electronic publications, databases, bibliographies, organizations, conferences, newsgroups and mailing lists. The gateway is in the form of lists and partly in the form of a database. The Library of the University of Art and Design (UIAH) has been participating in the project from the very beginning. The role of UIAH Library has been to create virtual libraries in Art Education, Industrial Design and Visual Communication, Architecture and Furniture & Interior Design and New Media (can be found through the address above). The Library has made an agreement with the coordinator of the project, Jyväskylä University Library, to join the common Internet database (ROADS software) together with, for instance the Library of Theatre Academy and the Sibelius Academy Library. This database enables the users to carry out searches with Finnish or English key words and limiting the searches, for example, according to subject field or resource type. UIAH Library will start cataloguing and indexing web resources - on the field of art and design - into this database later this year.

The Baltic project (1994 -1999)

Finnish art librarians do have an open working group, which is a member of The Finnish Research Library Association. The working group gathers together once every month in Helsinki (mainly art librarians from the Helsinki area) to discuss about matters of current interest. The group organizes, among other things, library visits, seminars and training. Since 1994, the plan of action of the group has included the creation of cooperative networks with art libraries in the Baltic Countries. This project has started by visits to the central art libraries in the countries concerned. These visits have included seminars in which the hosts and guests have presented the work of their own art libraries. The group members have also given accounts of the cooperation between Finnish and other Nordic art libraries (ARLIS/Norden). Part of the plan has been to bring Baltic art libraries into cooperation with art libraries in the surrounding countries. The first visit of the Baltic project was made to Latvia in the spring 1994. The second visit was made, after an interval of some years, in the spring 1997 to Estonia and we were honored to host our Estonian colleagues in Helsinki later the same year. The 11-member group also included two students of interior architecture from the Estonian Academy of Arts. The next visit of the Finnish art libraries working group will be carried out in May 1999, and this time it will be Lithuania. During the trip, the group of 19 art librarians shall visit art libraries and art museums in Vilnus and Kaunas. Art librarians in all the Nordic countries have been invited to join the trip. The Finnish Cultural Foundation has supported the visit with a grant of FIM 40.000. The previous visits have resulted in e.g. lists of art libraries in respective countries. We hope to edit such a list after this visit, too.

Report from the Netherlands by Geert-Jan Koot

ARLIS/NL Conference on Book and Image

The Art Libraries Society /The Netherlands (OKBN) organized a one day conference on the theme Book and Image: Visual Resources and Art Libraries on May 21 at the Royal Library in The Hague. In the morning session four visual resource librarians and 'heavy users'of images will share their experiences from different points of view. In the afternoon the art historian Gary Schwartz, the director of the RKD Rudi Ekkart and the director of the multimedia publishing firm 'Sound & Vision' Aad Hofman will present different statements to stimulate discussions with the audience. The main topics will be: the role of the visual resource librarian, how to make ilustrations in books available, the use of cartographical and historical material in books, the use of illustrations as historical and art-historical source material.

Five Dutch Art Libraries Catalogues on CD-ROM

The five leading Dutch art libraries published their automated catalogues on CD-ROM, covering all international art book material from classical antiquity to contemporary art. The coverage of Dutch and Flemish art is extremely comprehensive. The five databases give access to over 325,000 bibliographical descriptions of art materials. These databases can be searched separately and combined. All booktitles of the Rijksmuseum Research Library have been included. The other co-operating libraries are the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Every six months updates are planned. For more information contact the secretary of ARLIS/NL, mr. Gosem Dullaart, email: bib@rkd.nl

Five million for the Humanities

For many years the libraries of the Dutch universities had to face the decline of acquisition budgets. The humanities suffered most from cuts in the purchasing power. The Union of University Libraries and the Royal Library developed a plan to increase the infrastructure of the humanities. As a result the Dutch Research Institute NWO, subsidized by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, donated five million guilders (2.5 million US$) for the first two years to fill the gaps created during the last years. After evaluation, this programme might be continued for another three years. The Royal Library and the University of Utrecht received 300,000 guilders (150,000 US$) extra to spend on art books in 1998 and 1999. The main criteria for the selection are: published before 1998, and not available in the Dutch university libraries.

Survey of Standing Committee Nominations

New nominations 1999 (term 1999-2003):

Ms. Jeannette Dixon, USA

Javier Docampo, Spain

Ms. Véronique Goncerut Estebe, Switzerland

Geert-Jan Koot, the Netherlands

John Meriton, United Kingdom

Ms. Deborah Shorley, Northern Ireland

Ms. Nancy Stokes, USA

Ms. Marie Claude Thompson, France

Nominated in 1997 (term 1997-2001):

Ms. Svetlana Artamonova, Russian Federation

Ms. Ana Paula Gordo, Portugal

Herlof Hatlebrekke, Norway

Ms. Ada Kolganova, Russian Federation

Ms. Françoise Lemelle, France

Ms. Anja Lollegaard, Denmark

Ms. Ulrike Michalowsky, Germany

Ms. Olga V. Sinitsyna, Russian Federation

Corresponding Members, and Special Adviser

Ms. Josephine Andersen, South Africa

Ms. E. Barbarena, Mexico

Ms. Veronica Lavin Isax, Cuba

Ms. Margaret Shaw, Australia

Report of the Workshop morning session Art Libraries at Crossroads, Amsterdam 20 August 1998

The director of collections of the Rijksmuseum, Jan Piet Filedt Kok, opened the Workshop stressing the central and vital position of the art library in the Rijksmuseum. The morning session was moderated by Anja Lollesgaard. Four papers were presented:

• Libraries and art libraries face the Internet challenge: new possibilities towards the new technology by Alicia Garcia Medina, Instituto del patrimonio historico nacional, Madrid.

  In Spain, the great majority of art libraries are part of the museums or of private and cultural institutions, the others being university or public libraries. The resources that the Internet offers in the world of art are immense with an extensive variety of forms. To face the challenge of communication and information, the libraries have to play a role in different areas:

  • Selection and acquisitions of sources of information and bibliographic materials, taking into account that some publications are no longer on paper, but on electronic support.
  • Selection of electronic material: CD-ROM can be acquired as classic printed materials. The use of the Net is more difficult. It is the role of the librarian to select all relevant material and make it accessible as reference sources to users. The electronic conservation and storage of some of the most current information must be considered.
  • Dissemination of information (reference): the library has to offer its users the access to the web, particularly the participation to forums on specific subjects.

  In conclusion, the development of information is different between countries and between citizens. The role of the library is to provide an equal access to all users. The libraries must provide the reference services and the connection through the web and, at the same time, develop at its maximum all the possibilities of their collections. Even if the tools are changing, we will continue to be the intermediaries and essential pieces in the process of elaborating and producing the information.

• Digital image libraries: technological advancement and social impact on the teaching of art and architectural history by Angela Giral, Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York.

  The paper outlines some recent efforts in the United States to assemble and give access to collections of digital images in support of the teaching of art history.

  • The Research Libraries Group (RLG) has engaged several projects involving the use of images: the Digital Image Access Project (DIAP) for photographic image archives; WEBDOC, in liaison with PICA, and ARCHES for improving the infrastructure to support links on the World Wide Web; the REACH project to make a tested database of museum object records; the VISION project to bring more visual resources information on line.
  • Museums in North America do not have the financial or technical resources to digitize large portions of their collections. Nevertheless, some recent projects represent valid efforts: the Museum Educational Site Licensing (MESL) project explores and promotes the educational benefits of digital access to museum collections through campus networks to help promote the development of computer-based learning tools for the study of art and culture; MDLC (Museum Licensing Collection) assists museums, including historical societies and archives, in financing and digitizing materials from their collections and licensing these digital images to educational institutions, commercial companies and the public, the initial theme being 19th century American culture; the Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) formed by North American Art Museums provides educational access to an delivery of cultural information by creating, maintaining and licensing a collective digital library of images and documentation of works in their collections.
  • Private institutions: The Getty Information Institute supports several projects for enhancing access to cultural heritage information for research and education by means of computer technology.

  The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) has launched an experimental project between the members for sharing their own slides of building for educational use: plans and additional graphics would be sought in documents in the public domain. The pilot project deals with American architecture, 1850-99.

  • Commercial enterprises: CORBIS, founded by Bill Gates, the IMAGE DIRECTORY.
  • Columbia University has participated to several projects: AVIADOR (the Avery Videodisc Index of Architectural Drawings wich links videodisc images of architectural drawings to their on line descriptions on RLIN); DIAP (see above); ART-HUM (short for Art-humanities, a first degree to acquaint students with visual arts), an Image Reserve Collection accessible on all campus terminals, even in the bedrooms; MESL (see above).
  • Faculty reactions: The reactions to the use of new technologies for the teaching of art history or art appreciation courses range from total rejection to extreme enthusiasm. Some of the benefits appear to be the sharing of images from a variety of sources, the teaching of image analysing using digital images, the creation of virtual galleries, ...

    Nevertheless, problems still exist and, among them, those of the preservation of digital information.

• The role of the art librarian as curator and publicist by Deidre Lawrence, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York.

  Because art library collections very often contain more non-traditional textual and visual materials, art librarians have to act as curators or publicists. For the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Brooklyn Museum, the author developed a series of events focused on the richness of research collections, lectures, exhibitions, brochures, creation of a website. The primary goal of these events is to publicize some hidden parts of the collections with an eye towards fundraising to support preservation or acquisitions.

• Museum libraries: from hidden treasures to treasured information centers by Michiel Nijhoff, librarian, Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

  The opinion of the author is that the radical change some people see in digitalisation of information is only a change of form and that the direction in which we develop has a great continuity.

  In the Netherlands, at the beginning of the seventies, the university libraries and the Royal Library have decided to develop a computer system, PICA, for shared cataloguing: it is the origin of the NCC, the Dutch union catalogue and the NNC/P, the Dutch union catalogue of periodicals. Nevertheless, there is a large number of libraries that do not take part in PICA. The libraries of the RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum Boijmans, all cataloguing with TINLIB, have decided to produce a joint database which will be produced on a CD-ROM. All art libraries participate to the OKBN (Overleg Kunsthistorische Bibliotheken Nederland, the Art libraries society).

  In the Netherlands, a wide cleft has grown between art historians working in museums and those working in universities. There is a trend to try to reduce this gap.

  The library of the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen.

  The collection of the library contains more than 70,000 exhibition catalogues, 30,000 monographs and 20,000 collection catalogues. There is an interesting collection on surrealism, principally books and periodicals published between 1920 and 1950. This library deserves more visitors than it gets at the moment. The ambition is to open it to all people interested in art and art history. The four pillars on which this programme is founded are the collections, the building, automation and the staff.

  In conclusion, the museum libraries will not change, but they have to improve facilities for accomodating the rising number of researchers and students and widen their path from mule track to digital highway.

Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell'Arte, Florence: The Role of its Library in an International Context

Both Hoogewerff and Lugt not only had a deep admiration for Italian art, they also shared a strong interest in the artistic relations between Italy and the Low Countries. This is an important chapter in the history of Western Art, the scope of which can hardly be overestimated. For several centuries there were two major artistic traditions in Europe: that of Italy and that of the Low Countries. Italian artists were thought to be more successful in representing the human body, while the Dutch and Flemish were seen as unrivalled masters in realistic landscape painting. Among the Dutch and Flemish artists who stayed in Italy, many sought rapprochement with the style of their Italian colleagues. Rubens, for example, fused the best from both traditions. The artistic exchange concerned not only painting but also architecture, urbanism, sculpture, applied arts, drawings and prints. Together with Italian Art tout court, the artistic relations between Italy and the Low Countries remain one of the Institute's main fields of research. We recently published the first volume of the Repertory of Dutch and Flemish Paintings in Italian Public Collections, devoted to Liguria. Volumes on the other regions will follow in due course.

In the four decades of its existence, the Institute has grown out from a small study center into an academic institution with a wide range of activities. Neither Hoogewerff nor Lugt could have anticipated the enormous increase in size and scope over the years. Viale Torricelli 5 is now a place where experts with various interest of different nationalities and levels of achievement meet. At present the number of visiting scholars and students exceeds 400 per year. Furthermore, the public library attracts visitors from all over Italy, from Milan to Palermo. Extensions were built in order to create room for the library and photographic archive and to add new guestrooms. The Institute organizes lectures and congresses and has its own series of publications: the series 'Italia e i Paesi Bassi' is published in cooperation with the Florentine publishing house Centro Di. In 1966 the first exhibition opened its doors to the public. That has become a tradition: the Institute organizes on a regular basis exhibitions of old masters and modern art. They sometimes form the public face of projects that are undertaken within the framework of the Institute's own research program (e.g. Italian drawings from the Rijksmuseum, 1996).

The library underwent major changes as well. Looking at the photographs from the time of the foundation of our Institute, we can see that the library originally consisted of a handful of books, placed on a few bookshelves. By now, we possess more than 60,000 volumes, distributed over two large reading rooms and two depositories with compact shelving. Although we maintain a diversified, 'humanistic' approach to bibliographical acquisitions, the library obviously specializes in Italian art and in Dutch and Flemish Art. A special field of interest concerns furthermore the graphic arts. This specialization partly reflects our exhibition policy. Most of our exhibitions have been dedicated to drawings and the graphic arts in general: this choice suits the size and intimacy of our exhibition rooms.

As to the management and organization of our library, many changes have occurred during the past five years. In 1993 we committed ourselves to a large-scale automation project in cooperation with three other Florence-based centers of research and learning: The Biblioteca Berenson, the library of the Fondazione Roberto Longhi and the library of the Uffizi museum. The collections of these libraries reflect the history of these institutions. For example, the library of the Uffizi contains many rare eighteenth and nineteenth century monographs, from the time when public museums came into being. The collections of the Biblioteca Berenson and library of the Fondazione Longhi are based on that of their founders, Bernard Berenson and Roberto Longhi, and are continually being enlarged. Before the automation project started none of our libraries was easily accessible by modern standards. Thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the founding members of IRIS were able to install a computer library system and to automate all functions. By joining forces the IRIS consortium has achieved the following goals:

1. To produce an on-line union catalogue that gives simultaneous access to the holdings of all IRIS members. There is a danger that small, special libraries tend to become isolated, notwithstanding the richness of their collections. It is by uniting the wealth of resources in the various institutions that we deliver the best possible services to the community of scholars in Florence. IRIS's special fields of interest are the History of Art and the Civilization of the Renaissance in all its aspects. In this context, we were happy to welcome two new members: in 1996 the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento was formally accepted as the fifth member of our consortium. Their collection, with its special materials on Renaissance Philosophy and Literature, constitutes an important addition to the consortium holdings. In June, 1998 the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, joined the IRIS consortium. The Opificio delle Pietre Dure, a national-level institution with international recognition, is devoted to the conservation and restoration of works of art. Their library, with its specialized holdings in support of the mission, offers 18.000 titles most representing in-depth analysis of journals and monographs whose contents complement and enrich the IRIS on-line catalog.
2. Worldwide availabilty of the On-line Public Access Catalogue via Internet: www.iris.firenze.it/aleph/eng/start/html/ita/
   and - on a practical level -
3. To avoid a waste of effort, we take full advantage of shared cataloguing.

The participation in the IRIS automation project is extremely rewarding for our own library for several reasons. Whereas until a few years ago, our holdings were accessible only by author and general subject, we now have access also by monograph title series title, added entries, keywords etc. In a broader perspective, the Institute benefits above all from adherence to widely used international standards: AACR2, USMARC, LCSH, AAT. We have adopted the Anglo-American standards for bibliographical description (AACR2). This insures the possibility of exchange of data in an international context. The format IRIS uses for its machine-readable bibliographical records - USMARC - is receiving increasing attention in Europe. For formulating personal, corporate/institution, conference/meeting names we make use of Library of Congress name files. As to the topical terms we usually refer to Library of Congress Subject Headings. If these name files and reference works do not meet our specific needs, we turn to more specialized sources such as the Art and Architecture Theasurus, the 'Guida d'Italia del TCI' and Iconclass. One of the advantages of using the elaborate USMARC format is that it allows the use of specific indicators, subfields and codes indicating the source of the subject term. At first glance this option is relevant mainly only to fellow librarians, but the use of these qualifying elements does enhance the reliability of the database as an instrument of research. Finally, in some aspects IRIS is ahead of its time: since we are working in a multi-lingual environment, the IRIS consortium is engaged in working out a bilingual thesaurus in English and Italian. The intended result is to provide equal subject access across languages in a database of bibliographical records shared by a group of libraries whose staff and clientele is multilingual. This project was initiated under the inspiring guidance of Assunta Pisani, who has been IRIS Project Manager for many years, and will be brought to completion in the years to come. The bilingual subject catalogue will increase the possibility to connect to other networks in Italy, among them the Sistema Bibliografico Nazionale. We are thus planning to look for various forms of collaboration.

When the IRIS project started, our own library had only a shelf-list catalogue, which had to be completely converted to machine-readable form. In order to enlarge our electronic services, our library started a retrospective conversion project in 1996, in cooperation with the University of Utrecht. For one of the phases of the project, we engaged the services of the Italian representative of OCLC. At present almost 90 % of our holdings are available on-line in IRIS and the Internet. The project will be completed in the summer of next year. Once finished, the many Dutch and non-Dutch scholars who want to come to Florence will be able to prepare their visit more adequately. The possibility of knowing what will be available in our library, will allow them to employ their time in the most efficient way.

For a special library with an international clientele automation on a larger scale such as that used by a consortium is of crucial importance. It is the best way to keep up with international developments in the field of automation and exchange of data. In similar terms we would like to automate our photographic archive. Our long-range plan is to provide access to the photographic collection through the same computer network as we use for our library. Our photographic archive includes the following collections:

• Dutch and Flemish painting (the Luigi Magnaguagno Archive)
• Photographs collected by Benedict Nicolson on Caravaggism in Europe
• Italian art (photographs assembled by Hermann Voss and others)
• Flemish tapestries in Italy

Many of the photographs have been acquired over the past six years, thanks to the help of the Prins Bernhard Foundation and 'Stichting I Cinquecento', our donors' association. These acquisitions underline the vitality of our Institute as a center for advanced study. While much time and energy has been spent to facilitate access to the library resources with the help of modern technology, we continue to add new, unique materials to the collections. It is along these lines that we hope to serve the international community of scholars and have an active exchange of information with other institutions in Italy.

The Twinning of Art Libraries

Report on the 2nd Russian Conference on Theatre Books, Moscow 1998

The 2nd Conference The Theatre Book between the Past and the Future on the problem Book and Stage was held at the end of November 1998. It was organized by the Russian State Art library. The first Conference was held in November 1995.

Specialists representing libraries, museums, archives, institutes and engaged in different scientific fields: library science, bibliography science, history of art, philology, museum and archive work, took part in the Conference. Unfortunately, its potentialities were limited because of the difficult financial situation of the library. Nevertheless, bibliographers, theatre researchers, philologists, art researchers, theatre historians made interesting reports on the history, research, custody, bibliographing of the theatre book in Russia.

S.Antonova in her report Typological features of the theatre book. On the characteristics of the readers' address formulated a concept of 'the theatre literature', defined its role in producing a play, differentiated readers within the context of the relation theatre - spectator.

The subsequent development of the problem Book and Stage was reflected in the Conference programme covering the following fields:

• the history of publication and staging of plays, their scenography (E.Dinerstein Who initiated the staging of 'Contrabandists' (S.Litvinov's and V.Krylov's play), L.Starikova Publications of XVII - XVIIIcc. On the problem of scenography, O.Majorova The staging of 'The False Demetrus');
• published materials concerning some theatre personalities - actors, directors, theatre publishers etc. (E.Sakharova On the history of A.Chekhov's theatre, S.Frolova Notes on the margins of Inspector (M.Chekhov played Khlestakov), I.Vaganova He was a knight of the theatre (materials to the unpublished book about V.Uhskov, People's artist of Russia), B.Pojurovsky New monograph about actors. M.Rogachevsky Tragedy of a tragedian, A.Kavko N.Popov and the Belorussian theatre. From the director's archive, E.Selivanova N.Okhlopkov's view on P.Breigel (the history of a book);
• the foreign dramaturgy in Russia, problems of its translation, bibliographing, the history of its staging (Ju.Fridstein Volter's dramaturgy in Russia: episodes of the history of its translation and staging, A.Akimenko The Russian publications of the French dramaturgy of XIX c. The problem of its bibliographing);
• bibliographical and reference materials on the theatre, methods of their cataloguing (E.Sokolinsky The theatrical aspect of the bibliographical index 'A.Sukhovo-Kobylin's life and creative work, I.Mitronenko Bibliographical index of 'Published libretti of XVIIIc to the beginning of XX c, E.Alekseenkova Theatrical materials in annotated bibliographical index M.A.Bulgakov;
• the problem of conservation of the cultural heritage, archive search. (V.Nechaev On the problem of conserving the cultural heritage, E.Iljina The search of the Personality and N.Shubinsky's collection of books, A.Kolganova On an unknown discussion. S.Krzhizhanovsky's paper 'Titles of plays' at the playwrights'section of the Union of Wrighters of the USSR, L.Lepskaja The counts Sheremetjevs' theatre library and the ways of its formation, V.Ermolov The Moscow Art Theatre: published and unpublished archive materials, A.Tolstjakov A.Sidorov's unpublished memoirs of the State Art Academy);
• theatrical publications (D.Koroljov Theatrical publisher F.Kumanin, N.Lipatova From the history of the creation of the theatre encyclopaedia, S.Panov On the history of some theatrical memoirs).

M.Gromova's speech on the search of the contemporary play (the problem of the researcher's access to the texts of the latest Russian dramaturgy ) was very timely.

The Russian State Art library presented the following papers: A.Akimenko The Russian publications of the French dramaturgy of XIXc. The problems of its bibliographing; E.Alekseenkova Theatrical materials in annotated bibliographical index 'M.A.Bulgakov; I.Mitronenko Bibliographical index of 'Published libretti of XVIIIc to the beginning of XXc'; A.Kolganova On an unknown discussion. S.Krzhizhanovsky's paper 'Titles of plays' at the playwrights' section of the Union of Wrighters of the USSR.

The presentation of the memorial study of N.Shubinsky, Ermolova's husband and a famous Moscow advocate, was held in the actress's house-museum, where the second meeting was organized.

Museums, Libraries, and Archives: Summer Institute for Knowledge Sharing 2-6 August 1999

This five-day course will provide an intensive forum for exploring cutting-edge theories and practical applications in the field of cultural heritage information management and knowledge-sharing by museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions. Lectures, panel sessions, and workshops will take place at both the new Getty Center and on the UCLA campus.

Plenary lectures and panel sessions will address broad issues such as:

• The changing roles of cultural heritage organizations in contemporary society
• The power and pitfalls of technology to help institutions communicate widely with audiences
• Creative collaboration between cultural heritage information managers and content specialists
• New models of cooperation between museums, libraries, archives, and educational institutions

Special-interest workshops will cover best practices in areas such as:

• Information management and knowledge sharing
• Organizing and disseminating data and images
• Curatorship and education: issues, strategies, and techniques related to new technologies

Several evening excursions will take participants to cultural institutions in the Los Angeles area.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for professionals in museums, libraries, and archives who have or expect to have responsibility for using information systems for collections management, research, educational, and public programming. Because of the emphasis on team approaches to work across departmental and institutional boundaries, we encourage information managers and content specialists, including registrars, librarians, archivists, curators, and educators, to attend.

Brochures and registration forms will be available by January 1999. Registration fees include instruction, handout materials, transportation between venues, lunches, and any specially scheduled receptions. Fees do not include air transportation, airport transfers, rental cars, hotel accommodations, or dinners. Accommodations will be identified to match every budget.

Participant fees: $425 (before May 1, 1999); $500 (after May 1, 1999)
Graduate student fees: $225 (before May 1, 1999)
(Copy of full-time student ID required)$300 (after May 1, 1999)

For brochures and registration materials contact:

Programme ARLIS/UK & Ireland Annual Conference, University of Warwick 22-25 July, 1999

Taking Stock: Collection Development into the 21st Century

Thursday 22nd July

13.00 - 14.00 Registration

14.15 - 14.30 Chair's Introduction

14.30 - 15.45 Session 1: A Local Focus

John Henshall, University Librarian, Warwick, Collection development in an academic library

Richard Parker, University of Warwick Library, Thirty years in the making: the art collection at Warwick

Sarah Shalgoski, Mead Gallery, Warwick University Art Collection

15.45 - 16.15 Tea

16.15 - 17.15 Session 2: The Big Picture

Brian Lang, Chief Executive, British Library, Setting the agenda for the nation's resources

18.00 - 18.45 Reception

19.00 Dinner

20.30 Session 3: Close-up
Richard Morris, History of Art Dept., University of Warwick, Historic Coventry

21.30 - 01.00 Bar

Friday 23rd July

07.30 - 09.00 Breakfast

09.15 - 10.30 Session 4: Take Two

• James Bettley, National Art Library, Book disposal policies and guidelines
• Sara Gould, British Library, Developments in interlending & their effect on collection development policies

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee

11.00 - 12.30 Session 5: Action shots - discussion groups

Access vs. holdings

Foreign language materials

Information co-operation and its benefits

Non-book materials

Electronic sources

Book disposal: policies and problems

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch

14.15 - 17.30 Study tours

18.30 Reception

21.00 Bar

Saturday 24th July

07.30 - 9.00 Breakfast

09.15 - 10.45 Session 6: Action shots - discussion groups (repeat of Session 5)

10.45 - 11.15 Coffee

11.15 - 12.45 Session 7: In the Cutting Room

• Clare Jenkins, Birmingham University Library (formerly of CURL, Consortium of University Research Libraries), Open door or limited access: the availability of resources in CURL libraries
• Ronald Milne, Research Support Libraries Programme, The Anderson Report - slicing the cake

13.00 Lunch

14.00 - 15.30 Session 8: Zooming in
Ray Templeton, British Film Institute, Hinda Sklar, Architectural Association, The national responsibilities of specialist independent collections

15.30 - 16.00 Tea

16.00 - 16.45 Session 9: Back projection
David Pearson, Wellcome Institute, Rare books and special collections

18.30 Reception

19.15 Conference Dinner

20.30 Entertainment & Bar

Sunday 25th July

08.00 - 09.00 Breakfast

09.30 - 11.00 Session 10: At a cinema near you...

• Pat Noon, Coventry University Librarian, Access to Higher Education libraries: collecting for the community?
• David Ruse, City of Westminster Libraries, Collection development targets in public libraries

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee

11.30 - 12.00 Session 11: Final Credits

Plenary Panel

12.30 Lunch

For Registration, please contact:

Art Libraries Society, Australia and New Zealand (ARLIS/ANZ) Conference, Brisbane, Queensland 8-10 September 1999

The overall conference theme is 'Beyond the Future', which is also the theme of the Third Triennal. Subtopics are:

1. The Asia-Pacific and arts libraries. This is a broadly based topic which covers: art libraries and special collections in the Asia-Pacific region; library collections of historical and contemporary Asian, Pacific or Indigenous Australian art; collection development; print and electronic resources; digitisation projects; regional cooperation; and future directions.
2. Beyond the Future for arts libraries. What is the future of arts libraries and collections? Issues for discussion includes: the 'virtual art library'; digitisation and imaging projects (including cross-cultural projects); new museum buildings and how libraries are taking up the challenge of being more accessible to the museum's audience; and future directions.

For more information about the Third Triennial and its conference, visit the website at: www.qag.qld.gov.au

For more information about the ARLIS/ANZ conference, visit the website at: www.arts.monash.edu.au/others/arlis_anz/, or contact one of the following:

Japan Art Documentation Society (JADS) 2nd forum on art documentation, Tokyo 12-13 November 1999

Art Information towards the Next Millennium

JADS celebrates its 10th anniversary on November 12 and 13, 1999 with a two-day forum at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. The program is as follows:

Friday, November 12, Part 1: Paper Presentation Session on the theme: Fields and Methodology in Art Documentation

Session 1: Art Libraries

Session 2: Museum Documentation

Session 3: Art Archives and Fieldwork

Saturday, November 13, Session 4: Creating Art Information Contents

Part 2: Commemorative Lecture

Part 3: Panel Discussion on the theme: Further Possibilities in Art Documentation

For more information, please contact:

Crimea 99 Sixth International Conference, Sudak (Republic of Crimea, Ukraine), 5-13 June, 1999

Libraries and Museums in the General Information Space

The Council of the Art Library Section of the Russian Library Association (RLA) invites you to take part in the events of 1999. In June of 1999 the Art Library Section will work within the limits of the regular International conference Crimea-99 which will be held in Sudak, the Uhkraine, the Crimea. The theme of the next session is Libraries and Museums in the General Information Space.This topic was proposed at the last session of the Section in the Crimea.We shall be glad, if you can take part in the conference.

Please, send applications for the participation to the following address:

The main theme of the Crimea 99 international conference is: Libraries and Associations in the Transient World: New Technologies and New Forms of Cooperation. The following topics for presentations and discussions at sections, round tables, workshops, and other events are envisaged:

• Worldwide information infrastructure and interlibrary cooperation; IFLA experience and activities
• Development and preservation of library collections
• Automated technologies, databases, telecommunications and internet resources in libraries
• The ethical uses of the internet and information technology in libraries
• Interlending and document delivery
• Business information and information management
• Electronic information and electronic libraries: current state and prospects; copyright and ethics
• Linguistic support of information retrieval systems, indexing and classification systems
• UNIMARC, USMARC and other formats: current state and development
• Special (Turkic, Finno-Ugric and other) libraries collections
• Library education: user education and improvement of librarians' professional skills
• Municipal libraries and municipal information
• Publishing and book-trading companies for libraries
• Library and information support of science, education, culture and pedagogy
• Library services for the disadvantaged and other special library services

A series of satellite events is also envisaged including annual conferences of associations and groups. A list of sections, round tables, workshops and additional events will be continuously updated and will be finalized by the Program Committee in March 1999.

The conference web-site: www.gpntb.ru/crimea99/ (for online registration also)

For further information please contact the Organizing Committee:

Journees de Formation Association des Bibliothècaires français (ABF) Sous-section des bibliothèques d'art, 6e Réunion nationale, Strasbourg 18-20 Juin 1999

Pre-Programme

Vendredi, 18 Juin

Ouverture officielle par Monsieur Rodolphe Rapetti, Directeur des musées de Strasbourg.

Introduction par Nicole Picot, Présidente de la Sous-section des bibliothèques d'art

Les collections d'art de la Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, traitement, mise en valeur

La collection photographique du Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, ses origines, ses développements par Sylvain Morand, conservateur

Projets européens par Sonia Zillardt, Bibliothèque nationale de France

Conception et mise en place d'un site web: num-inha, le site de l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art par Hélène Guichard, conservateur à l'INHA

Comment des bibliothèques nationales donnent accès à leurs images sur le web par Marie-Claude Thompson, Bibliothèque nationale de France

Internet et les lecteurs des bibliothèques des écoles d'architecture par Sylviane Ricou, École d'architecture de Paris-La-Villette

Internet et l'art contemporain par Monique Nicol, Nouveau musée de Villeurbanne

La numérisation des Archives photographiques sur Internet (projet Chaillot) par Pascal Tanesie

Le site Internet des musées du Nord-Pas-de-Calais par Anne Sophie Legrand

Vernissage de l'exposition 'L'art en Finlande'

Expositions de livres d'art et de cédéroms par quelques grands diffuseurs

Samedi, 19 Juin

Visite de la bibliothèque du Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg

Table ronde des bibliothèques de musées

Table ronde des bibliothèques d'écoles d'art et d'architecture

Table ronde des bibliothèques d'art du Xxe siècle

La coopération BnF/ABF pour l'enrichissement de Rameau par Jacques Touron

Conclusions

Visites au choix des bibliothèques de Strasbourg et de Sélestat

Visite du Palais Rohan de Strasbourg par Etienne Martin, conservateur du Musées des Arts décoratifs

Dimanche, 20 Juin

Excursions: Colmar, le musée d'Unterlinden et le route des vins

Visite d'une cave-galerie d'art à Ribeauvillé: présentation d'oeuvres pour non voyants