The European Union-funded Vektor project has focused on the opportunities for documenting contemporary art material in European archives and making it accessible on the Internet. After three years of research Vektor is now publishing the results, amongst which is European Artnet, a website connecting a number of different archival collections and giving information on contemporary art in Europe.

The Drawn evidence project, 1999-2001, selected a sample of Scottish architectural drawings and contextual associated items from collections situated throughout Scotland to illustrate the country’s architectural development. High quality digitised images were produced and placed on a searchable web site. Funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme, the project has provided a rich research resource for academics.

Backstage, a major resource discovery project for the performing arts, aims to create a single portal for information on performing arts holdings across the UK. Its content will combine directory-style information for individual institutions with more detailed collection level and item level records. The project has provided an opportunity for cross-sectoral working for the main partners – a group of universities led by Kent and Bristol, plus the Theatre Museum and the Institute for Learning & Research Technology – but problems of uneven funding available to the different sectors have had to be overcome. The project was due for completion in October 2002.

Professional associations serve to underpin the work of libraries and of individual librarians. This paper considers the roles associations fulfil in general and goes on to examine in particular the international network of art library societies. Focusing on ARLIS/UK & Ireland, it outlines recent developments within the structure of the Society which have arisen from the needs of an active membership and a changing professional agenda.

The National Galleries of Scotland is entering an exciting period of development: phase one of its Playfair Project is due for completion in summer 2003, with the opening of the remodelled Royal Scottish Academy building adjacent to the National Gallery and the exhibition Monet: the Seine & the sea. As well as providing increased gallery, education and visitor facilities, this project also has information technology and access implications for the Archives, Libraries and Reference Section as well as for the commercial Picture Library.

Art libraries acquire a large amount of ephemeral material which creates a unique resource on the history of contemporary art. Librarians have to decide what should be retained, how it should be stored, and how the material can best be accessed. Increasingly there is pressure to digitise in order to promote collections, but how effective this process is in terms of ephemeral material remains a real question. A survey of prominent collections in London and New York has helped to inform future plans for the ephemera held by the library at Chelsea College of Art & Design.

‘Our task, with arts as the instrument, is not only to entertain and engage, but also to educate and inspire so that arts can effectively enrich the lives of all Singaporeans. The National Library Board and Esplanade welcome this opportunity not only to challenge people’s perceptions of art, but also to seamlessly integrate the arts into our daily lives.’

Benson Puah, CEO, The Esplanade Co. Ltd.

The Archirès network, linking the libraries and documentation centres in schools of architecture, has been in existence for more than 30 years. Over that time several institutions have joined it, including the Institut français d’architecture, the Ecole spéciale d’architecture, the Institut St. Luc, St. Gilles in Brussels, the Ecole d’architecture in Geneva and, last year, the Ecole nationale d’architecture in Rabat. The core task of indexing journal articles into a common database that is now searchable on the Web is only one of a number of co-operative projects which have improved access to information in this subject field. However the close relationship between architecture and art makes it imperative also to develop closer relationships with the schools of art.

Following the ARLIS/UK & Ireland study visit to libraries in Stockholm in June 2002, this article reports on the many fascinating aspects of the libraries visited, with particular emphasis on co-operation amongst them and especially the central role of the Royal Library/National Library of Sweden. Swedish colleagues have been most helpful in providing some of the details below, which are supplemented by data drawn from the web pages listed. Some information has also been adapted from reports by colleagues on this visit.

Glasgow’s Mitchell Library is one of the largest public reference libraries in Europe. Recently, the City Council’s Cultural and Leisure Services staff have implemented an innovative approach to providing art information for the general public in the ‘Library @ GoMA – the learning gallery’, which opened in 2002 within the Gallery of Modern Art. In addition to the support the library offers to the Gallery’s activities, an ambitious programme of digitisation is under way to enable access to more of the Mitchell’s treasures.

Dundee Contemporary Arts was created through a partnership between Dundee City Council, Dundee Contemporary Arts Ltd and the University of Dundee. Its unique building gives the University of Dundee’s Visual Research Centre scope for multi-disciplinary research, events and exhibitions, an archive and an artist books collection. But Gaelic culture, environmental issues and a library – just what, exactly, is the VRC all about?

The authors of this article, one from Sweden, the other from Denmark, have recently completed a collaborative project under the IFLA umbrella to produce guidelines for libraries providing services to users suffering from dyslexia. Many artists and art students have problems reading published material, yet art librarians still know far too little about how they can make access easier for them. This new publication stresses the importance of knowledge about dyslexia by all library employees and gives practical help and advice about training staff, producing information materials and setting up web sites.