In an age in which so much information is communicated through images, libraries can no longer exclude the ‘new technology of the image’. It is essential for libraries to respond to the challenge of the media, and to recognise, for example, the importance of television, which has a very visible and vital presence in the Bibliothèque publique d’information at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Ever since the invention of photography, France has been the home of a lively tradition of active, innovative interest in photography. This is reflected in the existence of the Centre national de la photographies and the Ecole nationale de la photographie, in collections and exhibitions of photographs, and recently in the use made of videodiscs, by both museums and libraries, as a means of storing images and making them accessible. Telecommunications offer the prospect of online access to a network linking image collections together as a single visual resource. The most serious obstacles to be overcome are neither technological nor financial: the legal question of copyright has to be addressed, while the muted interest of historians does not as yet represent an overwhelming demand for such a service, and much may depend on librarians to stimulate the enthusiasm of potential users.