Other sources of information
Library Catalogues Periodicals Auction Catalogues Archives & manuscripts Directories of libraries
The catalogues of many individual libraries throughout the UK and Ireland are included in the arlis.net Directory. The following are some particularly useful additional sources:
UK and Ireland
COPAC
The union catalogue of 27 research libraries, including the national libraries and major universities.
International
artlibraries.net
Formerly known as the The Virtual Catalogue for Art History, this service provides the ability to cross-search the catalogues of many major art libraries in Europe and North America, simultaneously.
Worldcat
Based on the OCLC database, WorldCat provides links to the holdings of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.
Periodicals / Journals / Serials
UK and Ireland
In addition to arlis.net, other online sources for locating periodicals include the following:
SUNCAT
The UK's National Union Catalogue of Serials lists the holdings of more than 50 institutions, including the National Art Library.
COPAC
The union catalogue of 27 research libraries, including the national libraries and major universities. Includes many entries for serials.
British Library Integrated Catalogue
Includes journals from the British Library's Document Supply Collections.
Cambridge Union List of Serials
Contains more than 100,000 serial titles held in 100 contributing libraries.
InforM25 Union List of Serials
The holdings of the constituent libraries of the University of London and University of Westminster.
Leeds Art Libraries in Co-operation (LALIC)
Union list of art and design serials available in Leeds(requires a PDF file viewer).
Oxford University Libraries
Provides access to OLIS, the university's online union library catalogue, plus other sources.
Scottish Academic Libraries SERials (SALSER)
Serials catalogue for Scottish academic and research libraries.
UK and Ireland
Major sources for sale catalogues include the following libraries:
National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum
The NAL has extensive holdings of sale catalogues from the UK and abroad. For details, see: Auction House Sale Catalogues in the National Art Library. Most sale catalogues are included in the Library's Computer Catalogue and can be searched via the Sale catalogues menu options. Additional sources are described in: Finding Information on Art Auction Sales, Sales Catalogues and Price Guides
British Library
The BL also has major collections of historic and current sale catalogues. For a detailed description, see the Guide to Sale Catalogues in the British Library. As the guide explains, only some sales are included in the BL's Integrated Catalogue.
Barber Institute, University of Birmingham
The Barber Fine Art Library collects catalogues which most closely match the profile of the Barber art collection and also holds historic catalogues dating back to the late seventeenth century. For more information, see History of Art - Sales catalogues.
Book Library, Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld's sale catalogue collection dates from 1722 to the present day, but holdings are not listed on the computer catalogue. For more information, see Book Library: Sales catalogues.
National Gallery of Ireland
The Gallery's Library holds the most comprehensive collection of sales catalogues in Ireland. For more information, contact the Fine Art Library.
Paul Mellon Centre Library
The Centre's Library contains 5,000 auction catalogues dating from the late 19th century to the present day. Some of them are not yet listed on the Online Catalogue. For more information, see the description of the Library Holdings.
Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain
Tate holds sale catalogues from the 1960s onwards, but these are not yet included in the online catalogue. For more information, see The Library Collection : Other Collections.
International
SCIPIO
The SCIPIO database is perhaps the largest single source of records describing sale catalogues. More than 20 art libraries now contribute to the SCIPIO system, which contains entries for catalogues produced by all the major European and North American auction houses. The database is available via RLG's Eureka service and can be consulted in the National Art Library and the British Library, among other places.
UK and Ireland
Artists' Papers Register
A location register of the papers of artists, designers and craftspeople held in publicly accessible collections.
Argentina and Latin America
Vitruvio Directorio Abbreviado
Provides a list of libraries covering art, architecture, design and urbanism.
Australia
Art libraries links
Includes a list of art libraries in Australia and New Zealand.
Belgium
Inventaris kunstbibliotheken
A temporary directory to art libraries in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium.
Denmark
Finland
France
Répertoire des bibliothèques et centres de documentation
Directory of libraries and information centres, with menu options for searching for specific institutions, places, subjects and keywords.
Iceland
Ireland
arlis.net directory of art library resources (i.e. this website)
A directory of art, architecture and design library resources in the UK and Ireland.
Netherlands
Collections of art-historical information in the Netherlands
A directory of scholarly library collections with holdings concerning the history of art of the Western world from the early Middle Ages until the present day.
New Zealand
Art libraries links
Includes a list of art libraries in Australia and New Zealand.
Norway
Norwegian institutional members of ARLIS/Norden
Sweden
Swedish members of ARLIS/Norden
UK
arlis.net directory of art library resources (i.e. this website)
A directory of art, architecture and design library resources in the UK and Ireland.
Updated May 2008
