Dear ARLIS/NA List,

 

I sent the following today to the CAAH list, and while some on that list are also on the ARLIS/NA list, I think many are not, so I think it is appropriate for me to send this to our list as well.

I have rec’d excellent feedback from the CAAH posting, and I think we should be contacting the Getty Trustees directly as an organization.

 

Jeffrey

 

 

Dear CAAH List:

 

I have refrained until now to send this email to the CAAH list, but with Vernon Minor’s recent posting, it now seems that it may hit home.  I do not yet think that academics understand the implications of BHA disappearing, and that is why I am now sending this posting to the list.  I have shared this email with several colleagues, and having received positive feedback, it now seems a good time to send it to the entire list.

 

 

Dear Jet and Vernon,

 

Thanks to you, and to Barbara Prior, who have written so eloquently and so on point about the presumed demise of BHA.

 

I think you are quite right that academic and museum staff are too stretched to fully understand the implications of what the loss of BHA will mean to their scholarship and the research of their students, but librarians do fully comprehend what the loss of BHA will mean.

 

There is nothing to replace it, and that has been clear to anyone who has used the other databases or taught them to others.

 

That the Getty made the decision it did seems to me to be morally reprehensible, which no one has yet mentioned.

 

What has happened to their commitment to supporting research?

 

In one instance, they will move from being the beacon to being the abyss, and no one will step in to take up the work.

 

The implications for academic reappointment and tenure will be far-reaching, as the superstructure holding up art historical scholarship will no longer exist.

 

It will be like jumping backwards to the card catalog!

 

Why is there no hue and cry from the art historical community NOW on a massive scale?

 

Why isn’t pressure put on the Getty’s Board of Trustees NOW?

 

Later will be too late!

 

I think that you and Barbara and I, and a few others, are loners crying in the wilderness of apathy and indifference, but I do not want to be in the position of having to say, “I told you so!”  Rather, I want to be in the position of saying, “The rallying cry shook everyone out of their lethargy and directed their energies towards the Getty, and the Getty re-committed itself to BHA.”

 

What about CAA, ARLIS/NA, and the other affiliated organizations sending out e-mail petitions to exercise pressure on the Getty to reconsider their unilateral decision?

 

Jeffrey

 

Jeffrey Weidman, Ph.D.
Senior Librarian, Public Services & Collection Development
Spencer Art Reference Library
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
4525 Oak Street
Kansas City, MO  64111
Tel: 816-751-1215
FAX: 816-561-1229
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