Having a play about with the Wilson art full text database. I used it a lot for my Fine Art PhD but not so much subsequently in the information and library management MSc. It’s interesting to look at from a different perspective now, trying to see if it makes any sense to have it for the public library in Bristol. It would be a wonderful reference resource, but is definitely more useful for academic research than for browsing, even though it has a fair amount of pdf full text (and hence, reproduction after a fashion, of the visual material). I’m remembering Susie Cobbledick’s research about the information practices of artists and others on what artists want from libraries, and it comes down to having the (usually physical) materials available to form up into whatever process is right for the artist – and this may differ pretty widely from academic/ information literacy-type practices familiar elsewhere.

That said, there are some art journals that really cater more for theory and research than they really offer to artists, and its the extent to which Wilson offers these that it’s really useful. I could envisage replacing some of these physical subs with digital ones, and even envisage – subject to the usual caveats about the ongoing relationship with the provider – the possibility of disposing of some old back runs of more-commonly-held, more ‘research-y’ back runs.

It would certainly amplify the research potential of the art library, especially given its strength in monographs over the last 25-30 years. I don’t think it would necessarily help the artist-researcher as much, geared as it is to a more academic approach – though I may be mistaken there, too. So long as it wasn’t taken as a signal to dispense with the more visually-oriented subs (and I’m thinking not so much of the antiques and collectors’ subs here as much as the contemporary art and craft subs) I think it would be a real step forward.