Art Libraries
Courtauld Institute of Art Book Library
Somerset House, The Strand, WC2R ORN
Tel +44 (0)20 7848 2701
Fax +44 (0)20 7848 2887
e-mail: booklib@courtauld.ac.uk
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 09.30-19.00
The Courtauld Institute of Art and its Gallery are located within the North Block of Somerset House, situated at the Aldwych end of the Strand close to Waterloo Bridge. The entrance to the Institute and its Libraries is located on the left beneath the triple-arched main gateway of Somerset House which leads off the Strand, whilst the entrance to the Institute's Gallery is located on the right. The nearest underground stations are Charing Cross (on the Northern, Bakerloo and Jubilee Lines), Temple (on the District and Circle Lines), Covent Garden (on the Piccadilly Line) and Holborn (on the Central and Piccadilly Lines).
The Book Library at the Courtauld Institute is a specialist library within the University of London, and is a last-resort reference library for research in the field of art history. It is not a public library, but exists primarily to provide a service to the Institute’s undergraduate and postgraduate students and academic staff, and to visiting academics, postgraduate research students and other scholars both from within and outside the University who cannot obtain material they require elsewhere.
The library aims to provide an art historical collection at all levels and is one of the major international collections of art historical books, periodicals and exhibition catalogues in the country, currently numbering some 130,000 volumes. A considerable proportion of this material is in French, Italian, Dutch, German and Spanish. Some rare and antiquarian books are also housed in the library. Since 1992, all new acquisitions have been added to an on-line catalogue, which can be accessed from terminals in the library, and externally via the Internet. Please note that the online public access catalogue is shared between the Courtauld Institute and the constituent libraries of King's College London. A card catalogue exists for all material not yet catalogued on-line.
As an external reader, you will be required to complete a reader registration card, indicating your research interest, on your first visit. Consequently you must take your university ID card with you. Reader tickets are issued for a fixed period of time. You will also be requested to sign a visitor’s book and show your current ticket at the issue desk every time you use the library.
The vast book collection includes not only books, but also exhibition catalogues, theses, pamphlets, sales catalogues and rare books. The periodicals section is in the West Vaults where they are shelved alphabetically by title. It should be noted that the periodicals have not yet been catalogued on the library’s on-line catalogue but are listed by title in the main author sequence of the Card catalogue. Permission to photocopy must be sought at the issue desk.
National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum
Cromwell Road, SW7
Tel: 020 7942 240
The National Art Library (NAL) is the national collection of documentation on art, craft and design.
It has the most comprehensive research collections in the UK of published and manuscript material relating to this field.
The library is accessible to the public as a reference library. It is housed within the Victoria & Albert museum.
The nearest tube station is South Kensington.
Subjects covered by the library include those central to the work of the museum:
- Prints, drawings and paintings
- Furniture and woodwork
- Textiles and dress
- Ceramics and glass
- Metalwork
- Sculpture
- The art and design of the Far East, India and South East Asia
- The history of the art, craft and design of the book
You can access material by using the WEB OPAC.
The OPAC contains all the items acquired since 1987 and all periodical titles.
Westminster Central Reference Library
35 St Martins Street,
WC2H 7HP
Tel (Arts): 020 7641 4638
The nearest underground stations to the library are Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus and Charing Cross.
The library itself is on three floors with stairs to all levels. Performing arts and photography materials are based on the first floor and the art and design collection on the second floor.
The Arts collection covers a broad scope of arts subjects, across the Art and Design and Performing Arts fields.
The former includes over 32,000 books covering painting, architecture, sculpture, antiques, ceramics, textiles, costume and fashion, jewelry, furniture, graphic design, interior decoration and garden design history. Relevant Information can be obtained from subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, guidebooks to historic buildings, sales records, price guides and artists' monographs. The library also stocks a wide range of current art, architecture and design journals with long backfiles and some important titles going back to the 19th century. In addition, you can find Art Abstracts, ArtBibliographies Modern and Design & Applied Arts Index.
The Performing Arts resources are also held at the Westminster Reference Library. The collection includes extensive resources on film and photography, television, radio and theatre arts.
Kensington Central Reference Library
Phillimore Walk
London W8 7RX
Tel: 020 7937 2542
The Reference Library, on the first floor of the building, contains a large collection of art books.
It has a good selection of material on the Victorian artists who lived and worked in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, including Lord Leighton, the Pre-Raphaelites and Linley Sambourne, one of the illustrators of Punch. In addition, there is a large periodicals collection.
Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/s/1013.aspx
