What is it?
In their most basic form, bibliographies and indexes are lists of literature that provide access points to resources. These resources are mainly books and periodical articles, but can also include dissertations, exhibition catalogs, and reports. They can be narrow in scope and may be found at the end of one work as a list of references or citations used in it. They can also be broad and serve as a compiled list based on subject, author, title, etc. Bibliographies are associated more with searching by subject, whereas an index is typically an alphabetized list. Much of the traditional format of a bibliography and index have been adapted and consolidated for a digital platform. They are important resources that, when well developed, facilitate the identification and location of scholarly and expert sources, whether it is inside or outside a given work or related to one or many institutions (Rubin, 2010).
Who are the primary users?
The primary users can be those researching art, art history, history; they can be students, professors, and scholars.
History/Background
Art Bibliographies trace their beginnings back to 1545 when Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner assembled one of the first bibliographies, made up of 15,000 book titles in his Bibliotheca universalis. They were added to the work in a series of subject indexes, many of which related to art. Prior to this some of the first ‘reference’ lists were advertisements for books produced by printers, that were arranged by subjects to make it easier for buyers (Sorenson, 1986). Much of the first 200 years of art bibliographies, however, were compiled by “non-bibliographers” for the purpose of annotating treatises and painter’s manuals. Bibliographies as lists of art books, and later as articles, periodicals, etc., didn’t really begin until the 19th and 20th c. The traditional art bibliography is based on two styles from the 18th and 19th c., “the arrangement by subject of semiannual catalogs and the annotated lists of books in private libraries of art scholars.” (Sorenson).
Important issues related to collection access and maintenance of art bibliographies and indexes.
A major issue related to bibliographies and indexes has always been cost. When most of these were still in print format it was expensive to subscribe, store, and maintain the items in a physical space. Today issues of subscription expenses remain, as well as storage, only now it is finding a platform to host and make accessible the digital formats of the items. Having lists made up of only the best articles from vetted authoritative scholarly works is also a chief concern. The Bibliography of the history of art (BHA), prior to 2009, was curated, edited, managed, classified, abstracts provided etc., by 50 participating institutions and 60 people. It had produced 400,000 indexed items in 40 languages since 1991. 2006 and 2007 alone generated 24,000 records, with 75% relating to journal articles, 15% to monographs and 8% to exhibition catalogues. (Simane, 2011).
As is true for all art resources one of the biggest developments for art bibliographies/indexes has been the move away from print copies to digital formats. The “e-consolidation of journals” is no longer just a growing trend, researchers expect materials to be digitized and made accessible through some kind of database. For some publishers though there is the concern of losing “crafted identities” of their publications and getting lost as a unique resource amongst the thousands of aggregated journals, articles, books, etc. (Brown, 2010). Despite this move to digital platforms for the aggregation and dissemination of bibliographic and indexed materials, Simane notes a shortcoming, “their non-consideration of documents and sources that are available beyond the traditional publication conventions: digitally created Open Access journals, full text documents on institutional repositories, digital collections, databases, etc.” (2011).
Print Bibliographies:
Guide to the Literature of Art History I & II
Online Bibliographies/Indexes:
Project MUSE-
Oxford Art Online-
Art Source-
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals-
Bibliography of the History of Art-
Bibliography
Brown, E. W. (2010). Project Muse and the E-Consolidation of Journals. Journal Of Scholarly Publishing, (1), 83.
Rosenbaum, Lee “A Biblio-File Bruhaha”. Wall Street Journal
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303491304575188564075303390
Rubin, Richard E. Foundations of Library and Information Science. 3rd Ed. Neal Shuman Publishers Inc.: New York, 2010 p.150.
Simane, J. s. (2011). “The 'crisis' of art bibliography”. Art Libraries Journal, 36(3), 5-9.
Sorenson, Lee R. Art (1986). Bibliographies: A Survey of Their Development, 1595-1821 The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 31-55
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