Why are artists books invisible?

Although I'm glad the National Art Library at the V&A has a collection of artists books, and that it can be browsed on line, I have some "issues" with the way artists books are presented there.

At the bottom of the page is a seemingly-endless row of thumbnails. I've been looking at them one by one for ... how long? simply ages ... and still they go on ....

The "search" facility at the top of the page applies to the entire website. Nor can you actually search for what you want to search for! I searched for "tetenbaum" because I know the art library's special collections hold some books by Barbara Tetenbaum. Up came the results for "team" - with the always-annoying question: You searched for X, did you mean Y --- to which one cannot answer NO!

Drives you crazy, that does....

So, when your search in google etc lands you on the page showing artists books (http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/album/15001) there is no way, apart from paging through all the thumbnails, to find the one you specifically want information on. You're likely to give up, as there's no way, apart from reading the description of every "thumbnail" shown in the endless list, to find what you're looking for.

And about those descriptions - informative and interesting as they are, sometimes the author/book-artist isn't even mentioned! Standard library cataloguing puts the author first; probably a collection of artists books is more easily kept in order via titles, but not to mention the maker at all falls short of good practice.

End of rant! Despite little things like this, I love the V&A's library in its wonderful room and with the amazing resources. They allow you to take in your camera and take photos of the pages of books (an efficient way to keep visual research notes). You have your seat for the day and can nip out for a coffee or lunch or even a wander round the museum. I do hope it's spared the ravages of funding cuts.