Juan Antonio Pérez Simón has built one of the most extensive art collections in Mexico and it is well-known around the world. One of the least known facets of Juan Antonio Pérez Simón's collecting is that of a bibliophile, a facet that has led him to form one of the richest private libraries specializing in art in Mexico, known for its great expanse and diversity of themes, as well as for the importance of the works that comprise it. The Juan Antonio Pérez Simón (JAPS) Library is the custodian of Pérez Simón's book collection and strives to manage, research, and preserve the collection in order to strengthen and enrich it.

Research collections in art reflect, in part, the cultural and artistic activities of a country and by themselves constitute a heritage. Two of the most important research collections in Mexico for arts are in the custody of the Institute of Aesthetic Research (IIE) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Library of Arts (BA) of the National Center for the Arts (CENART, Ministry of Culture). This paper gives an overview of these collections to expose their relevance and the potential they offer for research in the arts.

The PHAROS online search platform is now open and free to use by researchers of all types. The online portal at artresearch.net has been developed using ResearchSpace software and funded through grants from the Andrew W. Mellon and the Samuel H. Kress Foundations. This initial version of the portal includes the holdings of seven Pharos institutions, numbering over 2.8 million images. In the coming months, additional PHAROS members will add their holdings to the online portal, bringing the number of images represented to over 25 million.

An account of the first thirty years of National Life Stories oral history project, Artists’ Lives, covering its origins, context, aims, organisation, technology and dissemination. The project is housed in the British Library.