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In Memoriam: the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) 
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Posted by Dana Wheeles on Mar 29, 2010 08:39PM
In just a few days the invaluable Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), will disappear from Library Catalogs everywhere, now that the Getty Research Institute can no longer fund it. The BHA, one of the most comprehensive art bibliographies in the world, has always been my first stop when researching a new topic (or even when checking for new resources on familiar ones) and I'm very sorry to see it go.
The BHA is to art historians what the MLA International Bibliography is to literary scholars. To have such a useful resource no longer accessible due to funding shortfalls is a real shame. We are lucky to have Art Index and ArtBibModern still available to us for online queries, but these databases are more specialized and do not cover the same broad span of BHA. We must now multiply our searches for journal articles through JSTOR, ProQuest, Blackwell's and any number of commercial providers rather than having them gathered together in one place. Scholars at institutions that cannot afford to subscribe to all of these publishers will feel the loss even more acutely. Alas, it seems likely that Google Scholar will take a more prominent position in art historians' bookmarks.
After spending my weekend engaged in lively debates about sustainability and online research at The Shape of Things to Come, it seems absurd that such an established part of art historical research could just dissipate while we argue. I can only hope that there are those working behind the scenes to find it a new publisher and get it back online as soon as possible.
The BHA is to art historians what the MLA International Bibliography is to literary scholars. To have such a useful resource no longer accessible due to funding shortfalls is a real shame. We are lucky to have Art Index and ArtBibModern still available to us for online queries, but these databases are more specialized and do not cover the same broad span of BHA. We must now multiply our searches for journal articles through JSTOR, ProQuest, Blackwell's and any number of commercial providers rather than having them gathered together in one place. Scholars at institutions that cannot afford to subscribe to all of these publishers will feel the loss even more acutely. Alas, it seems likely that Google Scholar will take a more prominent position in art historians' bookmarks.
After spending my weekend engaged in lively debates about sustainability and online research at The Shape of Things to Come, it seems absurd that such an established part of art historical research could just dissipate while we argue. I can only hope that there are those working behind the scenes to find it a new publisher and get it back online as soon as possible.
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Posted by Dana Wheeles on Apr 01, 2010 03:09PM
This just in! Culture Grrl writes that she has news from Thomas Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Institute, that a press release is forthcoming with potentially good news about the BHA's future. Cross your fingers, and whenever you can, make your support for this resource known.