FYI - Why does it seem that we art librarians as interested in this as people on the CAAH list? It will daily affect our ability to do reference work and that of our faculty, curators, students, etc. 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
-----Original Message-----
From: Consortium of Art and Architectural Historians [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marc Simpson
Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: BHA
Indeed, Kubikat (as noted by Hubertus Kohle) and the KHI sites (as
noted by Adrienne DeAngelis) are superb and useful library catalogues.
I believe, however, that there are signal differences between the
Kubikat/KHI and the BHA models in the nature of the works indexed and
in the depth of indexing. Following Elizabeth Pilliod's suggestion, I
did a few brief searches that brought up significantly different
results. In simple personal name searches, "Hubertus Kohle" brought up
29 entries in BHA, 106 in Kubikat. "Marc Simpson," on the other hand,
brought up 40 in BHA and 22 in Kubikat. Perhaps this distinction might
explain Professor Kohle's and my differing advocacy concerning the two
(joke!).
On a more serious level, I searched "Winslow Homer" and "Civil War."
BHA yielded 26 entries; Kubikat, 4 (only one item was shared--Lucretia
Giese's 1986 article on "The Initials").
I expect that we could report dueling search results from now through
the new year. If I can generalize, however, it seems that Kubikat/KHI
and BHA have different philosophies about the scope of the material
they index and the depth of that indexing. Knowing the ways in which
Kubikat/KHI and BHA are not parallel operations might be of interest.
On the scope-of-coverage side of things, it would be useful to have
someone who really knows the different systems lay out the varying
approaches. Might a reference librarian weigh in on this? As to the
depth of individual entries, I know that Marilyn Lavin is correct--
BHA's abstracts can be useful for students and some researchers in
focusing among multiple options. BHA's index strings, too, can lead to
other productive resources that might elude author or subject searches.
No one source is (or ought be) a one-stop answer to tracking the
bibliography in the discipline. The loss of one resources that has
stood as exemplary for its breadth and depth will, however,
significantly diminish ready access to a range of materials. All the
more cause, then, to appreciate Linda Downs's note and hope that the
advocacy of CAA in this matter will have a positive effect.
Marc Simpson
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