Getty Site Provides Free Access to The BHA

Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) is a huge deal in the scholarly world.  In the words of Susette Newberry (Cornell), ““The BHA is the decisive periodical citation index for art history scholarship….”  The world was about to loose BHA (+ IBA & RILA), but the Getty has stepped up to the plate & then some.

As of April 1, 2010, the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) will be available free of charge on the Getty Web site at http://library.getty.edu/bha. Free Web access to BHA is an advantage not only to all traditional users of the database but also to such potential users as institutions in developing countries and independent scholars worldwide, who until now have been unable to afford access to the BHA.

However, it still brings up an interesting discussion of how fragile our ownership of information is in this digitally-licensed era.

For the full press release, go here.