For your info from CAAH list-serv. Ray Anne Lockard
Bibliographer and Public Services Librarian
Frick Fine Arts Library
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice-mail: 412-648-5972
E-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
"A book should be a ball of light in one's hands." Ezra Pound
From: Consortium of Art and Architectural Historians [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marc Simpson
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 1:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: BHA
Dear Colleagues:
Late last spring there was a string about the Getty's closing of BHA/IBA. At the time, the Getty Research Institute sent out notice that read, in part:
The Getty is determined to find BHA/IBA a good home that will provide continuing support for this uniquely valuable resource. Our goal is to move it to an organization that will provide a transfer in service that subscribers may not even notice. We anticipate that the same distributors will be used and that after January 1, 2010, updates will continue in a regular way.
CAA posted a brief statement of concern on 12 June. http://www.collegeart.org/news/2009/06/12/caa-statement-on-bha-and-getty-research-institute/ which concluded: "We will do what we can as necessary to secure its longevity once we have had our inquiries answered by the Getty."
This seems appropriate on a number of levels, including CAA's instrumental role in transferring the organization (with its many international partners and then known as BHA) to the Getty's stewardship in the early 1980s.
Has there been any further action on the part of either organization? Or is one of our discipline's principal means of tracking research and scholarship in the field simply fading away--along with its data set going back 30 years, the operational protocols, the distribution network, and its staff of editors/bibliographers/indexers?
At its inception (as RILA) the service was seen as necessary for a mature scholarly discipline, and was instigated by leaders in the field under the auspices of CAA, along with ARLIS/NA and the International Committee of the History of Art; it found financial support from, among others, the NEH; the Kress, Mellon, and Clark foundations; the ACLS, CAA, and the Art Dealers Association of America.
My question: if BHA/IBA ceases at the end of this month, what service or entity stands now to fill the activities that, clearly, many in our field felt to be so pressing thirty years ago?
Many thanks.
Marc SImpson
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