National Art Library

The National Art Library (NAL) is a major reference library, situated in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), a museum of decorative arts in London. It is freely accessible to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, and specialises in material about the fine and decorative arts of many countries and periods. It also contains substantial sources for information about artists. In the past, the NAL operated a restrictive admissions policy and was known as a library of last resort but that has since changed, as nowadays everyone is welcome to use the library and its collections.

The first room of the library, from the entrance

The NAL is located on the first floor of the museum, overlooking the John Madejski Garden. The library's subject coverage includes those central to the work of the V&A and its collections, including: prints, drawings and paintings; furniture and woodwork; textiles, dress and fashion; ceramics and glass; metalwork; sculpture; and art and design of the Far East, India and South East Asia. The library also functions as the V&A's curatorial department for the art, craft and design of the book which means that some books are collected as examples of book art, rather than as reference works.

Access to the collections

Visitors are allowed to enter the reading rooms to look at the highly acclaimed Grade II listed interior, but are not allowed to walk around as they would disturb the people studying. Visitors wanting to actually use the library material need to complete a registration form (and show some personal identification) to obtain a reader's ticket on their first visit. There is no charge for this.

The NAL is a reference library and does not lend material so readers need to use the collections in one of the public reading rooms. The library is known as a closed access library which means that most material (apart from the reference books on open shelves) has to be requested via staff at the counter. The library's catalogue is available on the web so that material can be requested in advance of a visit.

Highlights of the collections
The library's unique manuscript of Li tre libri dell'arte del vasajo by Cipriano Piccolpasso (c. 1547), "widely accepted as the first comprehensive account of the manufacture of any kind of pottery ever produced in Europe".[1]

The main strength of the NAL lies in the range and depth of its documentary material on the fine and decorative arts but it also has significant holdings of material in a particular genre as well as important historic collections, deemed 'special' either because of their provenance or their rarity, including:

Services to readers

Services to users include self-service scanning facilities, camera stands for use with readers' own cameras, and a digital microform reader. In addition, the library provides access to a range of electronic resources, including e-journals (some full text), abstracting and indexing databases, image and bibliographic databases and other reference sources. Some of these are only available onsite due to licensing restrictions. There is no printing facility, but digital material can be saved to USB sticks, which are available to purchase at the Library counter. There is a secure Wi-Fi network. Staff are on hand to assist with readers’ research queries and will help with using the NAL catalogue and the available online databases, as well as dealing with enquiries about the Museum’s collections, requests for biographical information about artists and a wide range of other general art historical enquiries.

References
  1. Wharton, Stephen, "Ordinary Pots: The Inventory of Francesco di Luca, Orciolaio, and Cipriano Piccolpasso’s Three Books of the Art of the Potter", Ch. 8 in Everyday Objects: Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and Its Meanings, eds. Tara Hamling, Catherine Richardson, p. 119 quoted, 2010, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., ISBN 0754666379, 9780754666370, google books; "Piccolpasso's treatise on maiolica", Victoria and Albert Museum (includes link to PDF on the manuscript)

Sources

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