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]
"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