Ruth,
To the best of my knowledge of database distributors or vendors, unless 
there is an entity to host the archive at a subscription price to 
libraries, the BHA/IBA will cease to exist if it is not supported by the 
Getty or another institution. Distributors like those mentioned in the 
excerpt from Terence Ford's email below, do not create subject 
descriptors & write abstracts. The exception is probably Wilson as 
publisher & distributor of Art Abstracts. I interpret Mr. Ford's 
statement to mean that no records contributed by the INIST (RAA) will be 
in the IBA. So if the INIST has been contributing 40% of BHAs records, 
that is indeed a significant loss of retrospective and current data. I 
surmise that the proprietary data supplied by the INIST has been (or 
will be) returned to the INIST. That would cover approximately 1975 
-2008. I base this assumption on a statement by Ted Goodman in his email 
of 5/6/09 regarding the Avery Index: "The Getty will be returning all 
data and copyright to Columbia. The vendor contracts and royalties will 
also come back to Columbia."

Mr. Ford's email makes it clear that the Getty will not support the 
ongoing IBA as of January 2010. The key word is ongoing. What happens to 
the existing data if no institution undertakes production of the IBA? 
Will the Getty retain the data & copyright and support subscription 
access to an archive? I don't know how that works: where is the 
electronic data stored, Getty computers; possible transfer of data to 
distributors to support access? Perhaps something like the model of Art 
Index Retrospective (modest annual maintenance fee) with one of the 
major database distributors will be worked out. I am less optimistic 
that the IBA will be picked up by another institution or company.

For ease of review, I have placed below excerpts from Terence Ford's 
emails. Again I urge the ARLIS Executive Board to contact the Getty 
directors, work in conjunction with the CAA and other professional 
societies to try to change the Getty's plans to abandon the BHA. Mr. 
Ford has done all he can do to alert us to the situation.
Jet Prendeville, Art/Architecture Librarian
Rice University, Houston, Tx
[log in to unmask]
713 348-2259

Note that Terence Ford in his 1/22/09 email states:

"2. Beginning in 2008, we no longer have an agreement with INIST, our
former partners in France, to produce 40% of the records in BHA. 
3. BHA has three distributors: Ovid, ProQuest (formerly CSA), and OCLC.
Wilson will be added to this group shortly. Each of the distributors
must have a new contract, and we have been unable—for confidential
legal reasons—to initiate these contracts until December 2008. Legal
arrangements with the distributors are now underway."

His 4/22/09 email states:

1. BHA's continuing work will be under the new name IBA –
International Bibliography of Art. The next update that the Getty sends
will bear that name, and will include new data (IBA), and all of the
past data of BHA and RILA. It will not contain RAA.

2. Beginning January 1, 2010, the Getty will no longer support the
ongoing IBA. As you may know, the Getty suffered severe losses in its
investments in the past year. Drastic reductions had to be made in
services and staff across the Getty. At the Getty Research Institute,
which houses BHA/IBA, support for BHA/IBA and for Avery were cut. 


Ruth Thomas wrote:
> Is my understanding from Terence Ford's email correct--that RAA data 
> will be stripped from the new database, IBA??? If so, is there not any 
> way a library can keep the online archive? Will the BHA/IBA 
> subscription price be reduced to reflect the lost RAA data?
>
>
> Ruth S. Thomas
> Archaeology, Art, Art History, Classics Bibliographer
> Mugar Memorial Library
> Boston University
> 771 Commonwealth Ave.
> Boston, MA 02215
> (617)353-3770
>
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