Folk art is widely supposed to have come to an end with the coming of urban, industrial society, but activities persist which may be termed ‘folk art’ and which include, for instance, ‘family art’ — the creating, by a family, of its own visual surroundings and traditions. Folk art is a people’s art; it affirms and renews personal, local, and community experience; it is a shared activity which does not elevate the role of the ‘artist’. But libraries by and large document fine art, and thus, at least by implication, are associated with its values and appear to have nothing to contribute to the kind of social change which may be necessary if people’s art is to flourish.

The text of a paper delivered to art librarian members of the Danish Library Association in November 1972, published in Bibliotek 70, no. 2, 1973, pp. 31-34, and now published for the first time in English.

A brief description of the project to computerize Australia’s public art collections and the development of Cataloguer’s Manual for the Visual Arts.

An increasing awareness of the importance of architectural records and concern about their acquisition, control, conservation and exhibition was made evident at the second conference of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM) which was held in London from 26-30 April 1981, hosted by the British Architectural Library of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The work of ICAM is of direct relevance to art librarians and what follows is a brief report of the conference, which was attended by 53 participants from 16 countries.

The world-wide compass of the visual arts and their parallel documentation brings with it the necessity for a world-wide network of information retrieval, communication and organisation between art libraries. This, together with the personal commitment towards material and readers, is what gives art librarianship its distinction. Within art library organisations over the years and within IFLA now that distinction has been continuously developed and shared. A particular duty of the art librarian now must be to help preserve the local and national qualities of art and life within the framework of the international scene.

The text of a paper presented to the Art Libraries Section at the IFLA Conference, Leipzig, August 1981.