An interesting study by two art historians (Hilary Ballon at Columbia and Mariet Westermann at NYU) examining the obstacles to successful electronic publication of art history has now been made available as a course on Rice University's CONNEXIONS website: http://cnx.org/content/col10376/latest/.

The study, "Art History and Its Publications in the Electronic Age," was nicely discussed by Jennifer Howard in her article in the Chronicle of Higher Educationthis summer: "Picture Imperfect," (August 4, 2006) http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i48/48a01201.htm.

According to Ms. Howard, the authors "have concluded that if art-history publishing is to thrive, gatekeepers of the visual must loosen their death grip on images. 'We're quite clear now that the biggest obstacle is the copyright obstacle,' says Ms. Ballon. 'Until you clear that obstacle away, you can't deal with the other issues.'"

The four "Primary Recommendations" in the report:

• Organize a campaign to break down barriers to access and distribution of images, in all media and at affordable prices, for scholarly research and publication.
• Launch electronic extensions of the scholarly journals of record (Art Bulletin and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians) to take advantage of innovations in digital research and publication, to issue extended versions of articles, and to publish electronic alternatives to the printed scholarly monograph.
• Form a consortium for the publication of art and architectural history online sponsored by the College Art Association and the Society of Architectural Historians, to leverage resources, to seek appropriate partners with image expertise, to bundle journals in a subscription package, and eventually to host third-party journals in art history and visual culture.
• Develop the benefits of electronic publication for museum publications so that they may become even more productive sites of scholarly collaboration.