In the last half-century exhibition catalogues have completely changed in appearance. Fifty years ago they were usually small pamphlets, which often simply listed the works of art in a show. Today catalogues are frequently substantial monographs, generally profusely illustrated. But a more complex change has also taken place, in line with major developments in the museum and exhibition world. This change can be illustrated by looking at some of the features of catalogues today, such as their production costs, function, and distribution.

Exhibition catalogues are a key resource for art and design research, but smaller and more ephemeral catalogues are difficult for art librarians to collect. In the late 1980s and early 1990s a period of interest in the UK in the problems of collecting and cataloguing exhibition catalogues sparked off research into fresh approaches to the problem. In line with the resulting recommendations the National Art Library, at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, has developed two key initiatives. These are the Exhibition Catalogues Programme and a joint project with the British Library to increase access to smaller exhibition catalogues. Both are showing clear benefits for national access to published exhibition documentation.

Art books in the UK during the Second World War were highly visible and in great demand. Despite paper rationing, stocks destroyed by enemy bombing, and military demands on authors and artists, new types of art book were launched to great acclaim. The archives of Penguin and Phaidon reveal both the constraints under which publishers were forced to operate, and the ideas behind initiatives such as the Penguin Modern Painters series, or Phaidon’s early monographs. Both publishing houses sought to extend the market for art books by producing large quantities at low prices, and maintaining a reputation for high quality texts, design and reproductions.

The Artists’ Papers Register aims to record the papers and primary sources of artists, designers and craftspeople located in publicly accessible collections in the United Kingdom. Ignorance of these primary sources can compromise the quality of art historical study, and it is true that it has until now been difficult to find specific information about much of this material and its location. The history and methodology of the project are explained here, while a number of examples demonstrate the diversity of the material that the Register can be used to locate. Plans for the future development of the Artists’ Papers Register should ensure that primary source material plays an increased and invaluable role in the study of art and design history.

Gaining access to primary research materials is critical to the support of research and learning. The Research Libraries Group’s initiatives to make archival materials, and museum objects and their records, available in an electronic environment are exploring the technical possibilities of achieving international, integrated access to textual and visual materials. That seamless web of resources so desired by researchers is getting ever closer to reality.

For many years the archive profession in the United Kingdom has tended to view highly structured cataloguing rules as a constraint, redundant in the light of the unique material with which it deals. Times are changing however and, with the advent of three new standards over the past six years, archivists are beginning to recognise that, far from being the straitjacket they had previously imagined, such standards do in fact provide the key to freedom in the brave new world of information technology opportunities.

How can the Ontario archival community best provide comprehensive documentary evidence of activities in the visual arts? A strategy for preserving the documentation needs to co-ordinate the efforts not only of the various collecting repositories in the province, but also of the people within the arts community who are generating records of their activities. Attempts already being made by Ontario archivists to ensure visual arts records are acquired and retained could be enhanced by improved education of everyone concerned.