The Arts Department of the Library was one of the first to examine what resources we had to offer users in addition to traditional services. We realised that not all specialized cardfiles compiled by the Department, though they are quite well presented, were widely used by readers because only a few of them had sufficient knowledge and skills in bibliographical work to conduct searches themselv es. All the Guidelines and leaflets produced in the Library were of little help since it was always easier for the reader to ask the reference librarian for assistance than to read the Guide or to examine the samples on display. The reference librarian cannot do all searching for readers, he can only give advice on how and where to search. Rearranging the Art files in the most convenient way for use rs would be of little help either.
Iconographic searches cause even more difficulties than bibliographic searches.
But again the reference librarian cannot do a search on behalf of the user, as we usually have about 100 readers a day in our Department. However, i t is evident that an art librarian can do this type of search more efficiently and quickly, using the same tools as readers but adding professional skills and intuition. It was therefore obvious that we could institute image research as a fundraising additional activity. I have to mention that the majority of art publications in our Library are kept in closed stacks. In total the Library collection of art materials include more than 100,000 volumes and more than 150,000 current periodical titles.