8th International Conference of Art Libraries

The two-day programme is covering a large spectrum of topics, ranging from the ongoing project Art Discovery Group Catalogue to questions around Resource Sharing and Linked Open Data. Speakers from all over the world will give presentations on the topics' various aspects as well as on new projects, events and initiatives going on in art and museum libraries and information services. The conference is both a meeting of the partner libraries joining the Art Discovery Group Catalogue project and an event focusing on topics around art and museum information of rather general interest.

The starting point of this community-driven conference format, born in 2004, was the necessity to bring together the growing group of European art libraries that have been participating in the Virtual Catalogue or Art History, launched in Germany in 1999. Over the first years, this federated solution in terms of technique and maintenance for connecting library catalogues, developed into an international cooperation network with a steadily growing number of partners. At the first conference in 2004, this group consisted already of 44 member libraries from four European countries. In the following years, the number of partner libraries grew to more than 90 libraries in 14 countries on four continents. When in 2012 the virtual catalogue, meanwhile called 'artlibraries.net', was replaced by a more up to date discovery solution, based on WorldCat powered by OCLC, the group of participating libraries changed both in number and composition. However, the before mentioned cooperation network remained.

One of the central topics in all seven previous meetings of the last fourteen years was the prospect on future developments in librarianship in general and in the art sector in particular. Also the upcoming conference in Amsterdam will focus on related questions, concerning for instance resource sharing in terms of global collaboration and developments in linked open data for the benefit of art history. The conference is a forum not only for correspondent presentations but first and foremost for discussions and inspiring visits to local participants.

Please register here.