The growth of art history and art practice courses in Australia has been remarkable over the last 20 years. Unfortunately training for art librarianship has not matched this growth. There are eleven universities in Australia offering graduate degrees and post-graduate diplomas in librarianship but none offer specific courses leading towards a specialisation in art librarianship. ARLIS/ANZ provides opportunities for training and education. Advances in scholarly art research and publishing in Australia, the development of Australian-related electronic art databases, the growth of specialist collections in State and public libraries, and the increased demand by the general community for art-related information, confirm the need for well-developed skills in the management and dissemination of art information.

Big changes in the educational system of Sweden took place in 1992/1993 because of political changes in the government. Earlier the government and parliament made decisions about course details at the different universities, and research education was offered only by the universities, and not by the colleges. In the early 1970s the College of Librarianship in Borås was commissioned by the government to offer a two-year academic level supplementary course in librarianship. Until the spring term in 1993, education for librarianship in Borås changed course several times, and five years ago courses in art and music librarianship, which had given students some insights in art history, were discontinued. Beginning in the autumn of 1993 the education system in Sweden will be much freer, implying that every university and college will be permitted to make its own decisions about courses. And from now on courses in librarianship will be offered by the universities in Umeå, Stockholm (starting spring 1994) and Lund, as well as in Borås. Librarianship at the research level was established three years ago at Göteborg University in close cooperation with the college of librarianship in Borås

In 1985 the dual master’s degree program in art librarianship was developed at Indiana University by the head of the Fine Arts Library, working with faculty members in the School of Fine Arts/Art History and the School of Library and Information Science. This program is designed to prepare students in the United States for professional library and information specialist positions in fine arts libraries and information centers. The student is offered a coordinated approach to achieving two masters degrees — one in art history and the other in library and information science — and must be admitted to both schools. For this program the course ‘Seminar in Art Librarianship’ was devised, covering topics such as administration, collection development, reference services, and visual resources management. Further requirements include a research bibliography course in art history and fieldwork experience in the Fine Arts and Slide libraries. This program seeks to meet the need for a marketable combination of subject–specific and library/information science education for art library and visual resources professionals.

There are 58 universities in the US and Canada which offer graduate degrees in library and information science. At 33 of these, students can take elective courses in subject areas such as art history, but only eight of them provide a special course focussing on art librarianship. There are, however, numerous courses and work study oportunities which allow a student to prepare for jobs in this field. An annual survey conducted by ARLIS/NA reveals some interesting facts regarding educational opportunities, and these facts illustrate a tendency towards intermixing generalist and specialist aspects of professional education. The College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland, offers a course in ‘Literature and Research in the Arts’, enabling library science students to explore the ‘bibliography’ of art (including electronic sources) as one element in a broader program of study.

The overall problem of professional education for Italian librarians arises from the lack of specific schools of librarianship. Librarians must learn ‘on the job’. However, the inauguration of BiArte, the Italian Art Libraries Association, in 1988, has provided a forum through which art librarians can share their experience, knowledge and enthusiasm, and further their professional education … even if it cannot of itself win for librarians the professional image which only a sound, basic training in librarianship can provide.

Although in the past it has been possible for students of librarianship in Britain to select some specialist options pertaining to art librarianship, this is no longer the case: training for librarianship is generalist in its scope. Intending art librarians have in some cases chosen to study for an arts degree and then to undertake postgraduate training in librarianship, while more recently the proliferation of modular studies has multiplied opportunities for combining different subjects. Art librarianship is learned by working in an art library; in addition, ARLIS/ UK & Ireland provides short courses, workshops, and study visits, as well as an annual conference. Proposals for a national Visual Arts Library and Information Plan (VALIP) may lead to further development of a strategy for the training of art librarians.

The ongoing economic recession together with redirection of dwindling educational resources towards the sciences, with less and less for culture, appears to some Canadian art librarians to be marginalizing art library collections and art librarianship. In any case, the current cultural climate invites a broader definition of ‘art’ that encompasses multiculturalism. Another source of concern is the increasing emphasis in our library schools on training information generalists, although the schools are simply addressing workplace preoccupations with technical and administrative skills. It can be more satisfying to teach art librarianship to practising librarians than to students of librarianship with differing backgrounds, expectations and motivation. In Canada, there is a need for art library associations to be instruments of positive change, by offering courses and workshops, and especially by taking advantage of teleconferencing methods to extend educational programs to librarians and students across the country.

Education for art librarianship varies in its provision in France, Russia, Mexico, Spain, Japan and the Netherlands, but hardly features at all in standard librarianship training programmes. Individuals have come to art librarianship by a number of routes, often involving the study of art history and/or the experience of working in an art library, but in some cases as practising artists. Staff exchanges are a potentially valuable component of the continuing education of art librarians which art library associations in several countries are making it their business to provide. These associations and, at the international level, the IFLA Section of Art Libraries, can facilitate the sharing of training materials, and the Section would do well to continue to pay attention to the continuing education of art librarians and perhaps to produce an outline of a core course for use worldwide, with local additions and variations.