The Bibliothèque Artistique is a unique library beast.
Nestled deep within the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles (Royal Academy of Fine Arts Brussels), it's collections have serviced the prestigious art school since 1711.
A strange schism occurred in the 1973 however, when the library was officially absorbed into the public library system of Brussels. It essentially became a regular public library branch, albeit with a particular subject specialisation, and an incredible and uncatalogued rare book collection requiring an immense amount of Serious Library Work. This rare book collection remained the property of the Academy, but remained housed and protected by this Bibliotheque Artistique.
Branch Librarian Christine Feron has been doing an incredible job with this unusual arrangement, juggling the responsibilities of a small public library service, and the daunting task of assessing, cataloguing and digitising their rare holdings, all with a staff of 2. That number includes Christine.
.jpg)
Upon the split, the Library chiefs and representatives of the Academy allocated autonomous care and responsibility of the 19th century collection (over 10,000 titles) to the library staff.
Decision-making and management of the 17th and 18th century collection (about 400 titles) is shared by the Academy and the Library.
The collaboration is working well, and since 2002 Christine and her small team (one other coworker and the occasional intern) have catalogued nearly 5000 titles from the impressive 19th century collection of folios.
