>At 11:31 AM 3/6/2003 -0800, Michelle Guy wrote:
>Attention BHA Users:
>
>We would like to encourage everyone who uses BHA to attend the BHA User
>Group Meeting at the 2003 ARLIS/NA Conference in Baltimore.
>
>At this meeting BHA staff will update users on BHA production and
>distribution. We look forward to hearing your questions and feedback
>regarding BHA. We are especially interested in your suggestions for BHA
>searching.
>
>BHA is also seeking volunteer contributors. Contributors are generally
>assigned a small group of periodicals and submit abstracts to BHA headquarters.
>
>The BHA User Group Meeting takes place Tuesday, 25 March, 8:00 - 9:30 a.m.
>at the Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel, Lincoln Room. Refreshments
>will be provided. We hope to see you there!
>
>
>Michelle Guy, Assistant Editor
>Bibliography of the History of Art
>Getty Research Institute
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I think some effort should be put into discussing the problems of those
individuals who DON'T use the BHA -- who don't use it because they can't
obtain access to it. A growing number of independent and unaffiliated
scholars have no convenient way of using this indispensable tool --
especially annoying because the BHA is one of those resources that one
might need briefly at the spur of the moment, and then not again for
perhaps weeks.
The growth of site-licensed resources such as BHA is beginning to have
cultural-economic consequences. First it divides the scholarly community
into "haves" and "have-nots," and second, it predisposes one group to
invent investigative strategies and subjects that bypass the traditional
research paradigms. This may be beneficial or not, but it shouldn't be a
consequence of what resources are available.
Obviously, I'm speaking from personal experience. If I need the BHA, I must
either beg a favor (an expiring enterprise) or I must drive about a half
hour to a public university that permits walk-in researchers to use on-line
resources, and even here, sometimes they want to charge for their use.
===========================
Robert A. Baron
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.studiolo.org
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