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THE CONWAY LIBRARY


Explanation & Guide to the Microfiche

No catalogue, index or comprehensive reproduction of the holdings of the Conway Library has ever been made. Because of this, the project to put the collection on microfiche was welcomed by the Institute and a considerable contribution was made by the staff to the planning and organisation.

Making the Conway Library available on microfiche helps to fulfil the educational function of the Library by aiding those art historians who are finding it increasingly difficult to travel from other parts of the world and by enabling visitors to come to the Library better prepared.

As explained by the Conway Librarian, open access is allowed to the collection, which means that the mounts stored within boxes and folders are normally in random order. Considerable preparation has therefore been necessary to organise the collection for the project. A team of art historians familiar with the collection has been sorting the mounts into the order established in discussions with the staff. At the Library there are certain anomalies, which have had to be altered on the microfiche for ease of use. Thus, while large towns or important artists are filed in separate boxes at the institute, for the fiche these were put into correct alphabetical order; single mounts normally kept in an A-Z miscellaneous folder were extracted and similarly filed into order.

A great deal of effort has been made by the team to ensure that the order is correct. However, with a collection of this size, human error will creep in and therefore mistakes in filing will undoubtedly be found. But we hope that these are only minor and that with a small amount of browsing, as would be necessary when using the collection itself, the user will find the information required.

The basic order of the Conway Library has been maintained, reflecting the different arrangement of each part. In consultation with the staff the collection was split up into six parts, in what was agreed would be the most useful order for the user. As indicated in the introduction, the organisation and arrangement of the contents of the collection reflects the way in which it is and has been used and studied.

All information about each photograph is annotated on the mount. We have therefore photographed the full mount, so that this information is available on the same frame.

Where a negative of the photograph is available, this has been stamped on the mount, giving a number (eg 190468, usually on the top left of the mount) if it is available from the Conway Library, or the name of the course (eg Tim Benton). Prints of the negatives held by the Library can be ordered from the Conway Library by citing the negative number.

A special process for producing the microfiche has been used, which ensures a very clear and lively yet soft image. This process enables the contrast to be controlled and fine detail, especially in shadowy areas, to be visible. The control of contrast in reproducing black and white photographs is very difficult, but we believe that we have achieved images that are ideal for study and printout, while avoiding flat and dull pictures. Some of the very old photographs and magazine cuttings were difficult to reproduce and we trust the user will take this into account when using the fiche.

The title strips on the microfiche should help guide the user to the required material. They list the part, country, period and place. With the larger towns (10 or more fiche), individual buildings or streets, and even parts of a building, are listed if useful. It is the first and last frames of each fiche that are listed, e.g. France to 1800: Reims (Cathedral: Interior, Capitals – St. Nicaise).

Printed Contents List


As a further aid to retrieval, this printed contents list has been produced, in an easy-to-use format, from the information on the title strips.

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