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I am responding to the question on ARLIS-L posted by Dana Beth on
February 18, 1997. She had asked whether any libraries subscribe to
Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) for web-based access to
AAT and Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA). She was asking
for evaluation of performance.
From CHIN's point of view, we do know that we have over 300
subscribers to our reference databases, worldwide. Many of these
subscribers are libraries.
We can tell from recent statistics of database searches that BCIN, the
bibliographic database on conservation, is the most popular of our
reference databases. BCIN contains all of AATA as well as the holdings
of the Canadian Conservation Institute Library, Conservation
Analytical Laboratory, Getty Conservation Institute Library, ICCROM
library, UNESCO-ICOM Museum Information Centre and ICOMOS
Documentation Centre.
The Art and Architecture Thesaurus is used less often on the Web than
BCIN, but use has increased dramatically in the past few months. The
AAT has recently been updated so that subscribers can search for
terms, display term information and link to hierarchical displays. The
hierarchical display makes terminology research easy by helping you
find the most appropriate term at a glance.
There are two other bibliographic databases available through CHIN
that might interest ARLIS-L subscribers. They are BMUSE, which indexes
international museology literature and HERB, which indexes literature
on heritage law.
We have been making changes to the databases on the Web as we receive
feedback from our subscribers. We are making changes according to
their needs on a gradual and incremental basis. We value feedback.
CHIN has recently introduced a 30 day free trial of the reference
databases. For those of you who have an interest in the field of
conservation of cultural property, museums and heritage subjects, we
would like to invite you to try the databases and let us know what you
think. The URL is http://www.chin.gc.ca . Select "Professional
Resources" from the CHIN home page and "Research and Reference" from
the following page.
If you have any questions please let us know. You may contact us at
[log in to unmask] We may also be reached by telephone at
1-800-520-2446. Our fax number is (819)994-9555. We welcome your
comments.
Vicki Davis
International Liaison and Business Development Canadian Heritage
Information Network
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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