As convenor of the ARLIS Working Party on Co-operative and Co-ordinated Acquisition, I am delighted to accept the hospitality of these pages and the opportunity to discuss current problems in co-operation.

For some time now it has been obvious that art librarians as a whole have been aware of a need to co-operate at all levels. This is a healthy sign of maturing awareness and self-identification as librarians with common problems.

The needs of the researcher in the fine arts are considered. The nature of inter-lending in the field is outlined, and in particular, the role of the British Library Lending Division and its ability to supply this material are examined, together with an appraisal of its current stocks and acquisitions policy.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the British Library.

A brief description of the historical origins and present policies of the British Architectural Library.

This article on a classification scheme for an art school library with a strong emphasis on ‘modern’ art, updates a previous article, and draws particular attention to the revised notation.

Some reflections on the life and home of S.C. Hall, founder of the Art Journal, his wife Anna Maria, and their literary explorations of the Thames.

A survey of recommended principles and practice for the preparation of publications for the art library.

The MUSEE DES BEAUX-ARTS, RENNES drew on the resources of the French national collections for L’Art Maniériste: formes et symboles, 1520-1620, (6th January - 15th March 1978) which contained 232 exhibits (chiefly paintings, prints and drawings — mostly illustrated in the catalogue). Arranged thematically, e.g. ‘La Maniera’, ‘Le Luxe et La Fete’, ‘Les Dieux chez les Hommes’, etc., the catalogue also contains maps, tables and bibliographies.

Based solely on its own collection is Five centuries of master graphics in the collection of the St. Louis Art Museum, 1977 — 78 published by that Museum in 1977. The 188 p. catalogue contains 85 illustrations (all black and white) documenting a collection covering works by artists from Dürer to Johns.

The Bibliography of Museum and Art Gallery Publications and audio-visual aids in Great Britain and Ireland, edited by Jean Lambert (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey; Teanack, N.J.: Somerset House, 1977. £28) encourages me to consider some recent museum publications: publications for the most part that are catalogues of holdings in some way. But first a brief look at the Chadwyck-Healey publication. It describes itself as ‘a comprehensive biennial list of all types of material published and distributed by museums, art galleries and related institutions in Great Britain and Ireland’. It includes only material which is currently available for sale, loan or reference. It was compiled by questionnaire which leads to a certain lack of uniformity: some institutions, for instance, did not consider it necessary to include dates of publications. More than eight hundred institutions are included. The bibliography is divided into four sections: main entry, in which publications are listed alphabetically under their institutions; author index; title index; subject index. The snag of the last three, and particularly of the author index, is that the reader is referred only to the institution in which the author appears. This works quite well where a museum or gallery has published fairly little, but when faced with 12 pages of British Museum publications, or even 5 pages of Vaughan Williams Memorial Library publications, the job of scanning columns of small print and dense layout to find the required entry becomes daunting. Careful reading shows that many museums are still without available catalogues of their basic holdings. All the more interesting, therefore, to look at some of the catalogues that have been published recently.