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Greetings colleagues, Following the recent announcement of the new World Biographical Information System Online (WBISO http://www.saur.de/wbis-online) by Saur and Thompson Gale and the loss of the free Saur World Biographical Index we contacted Thompson Gale representatives to see if: 1) an index-only product would be offered, and 2) there was any possibility of arranging consortial access to the full WBISO. The answer to both questions was, "Yes." Those of you in the museum library community who perform provenance research are aware of the value of Saur's biographical products. The advantage of the Index was that it allowed provenance researchers free access to a combined name index of the various Saur biographical fiche sets, which include the American Biographical Archive, the British Biographical Archive, the Deutsches Biographisches Archiv, and others. Researchers could confirm dates and nationalities and follow the Index citations to the full biographical information in the microfiche sets if necessary. Hence our interest in Saur and Thompson Gale developing an index-only product. The value of the new WBISO product is that several (8 - see url) microfiche sets have been digitized and search results include links to pdf files of the full fiche entry. Saur plans to include additional archival collections and additional regions (Eastern Europe, SE Asia, etc. - see url). By the year 2008-09 they hope to offer 48-50 digitized archives. Such an extensive biographical research tool is of considerable interest to those engaged in provenance research, but pricing is probably beyond most museum libraries. Hence our interest in a possible consortium, most likely of museum libraries. If you are interested in either an index-only product or participating in a consortium to share costs for access to the full WBISO product, please contact either of us off list for more information. Regards, Ursula Kolmstetter Stout Reference Library Indianapolis Museum of Art 317-920-2662, ext. 225 [log in to unmask] Peter Blank Ryerson & Burnham Libraries The Art Institute of Chicago 312-443-3665 [log in to unmask] ===== >Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 11:35:38 -0500 >Reply-To: Peter Blank <[log in to unmask]> >Sender: ART LIBRARIES SOCIETY DISCUSSION LIST <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: [ARLIS-L] World Biographical System Online >To: [log in to unmask] > >Greetings colleagues, > >FYI -- Saur's World Biographical Index, formerly available for free >via the web (http://www.saur-wbi.de/intro_en.htm), is now available >in the U.S. via Thomson Gale only for subscribers to the World >Biographical Information System Online. See the website for >particulars. For those of you in larger academics, your college or >university may have already subscribed so you will still have access >to the index in its new interface. > >I suspect that some of you, especially those in the museum community >who are engaged in provenance research, found the index component >extremely useful for confirming names and life dates, even if you did >not follow the bibliographic trail to the related source archives, >such as the German Biographical Archive (DBA) or the American >Biographical Archive (ABA). At this time Thomson Gale does not have >an index-only product available. In order to access the index you >must either subscribe to the full-blown WBIS or subscribe to one of >the component archives, such as the DBA or ABA. I've made a request >to Thomson Gale and would encourage those of you who are also >interested in an index-only product for WBIS to make yourself heard, >the assumption being that this product would be offered at a lower >price point than even the single archive component access level. > >Regards to all, > >Peter Blank > >------------------------------------------------------------ >Peter P. Blank Phone: (312) 443-3665 >Head, Reader Services FAX: 312.443.0964 >Ryerson & Burnham Libraries [log in to unmask] >Art Institute of Chicago >111 S. Michigan Ave. >Chicago, IL 60603 __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]