Viewpoint 2

The first meeting of a new section of IFLA, the Art Libraries Section, was held at the IFLA Conference in Brussels on 8th September, 1977. This was the outcome of several years’ work, both in various different countries and within IFLA itself.It was at the 39th IFLA Conference (Grenoble, August 1973) that I first suggested to a Special Libraries Division meeting the benefits for IFLA of establishing a group within which art libraries could effectively co-operate. This idea made slow progress, and we had had to arrive at a point where art libraries throughout the world were on the verge of setting up an International Association of Art Libraries, independent of IFLA, before the Special Libraries Division decided to pursue their well justified request.