Journal Title Overlap Study of Four Major Online Art IndexesAuthor(s): Tony WhiteSource: Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 24,No. 1 (Spring 2005), pp. 26-28Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27949347 .

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Journal Title Overlap Study of Four Major Online Art Indexes_ Tony White

[Revision of a paper developed as part of an independent study project at Indiana University, Spring 2003.]

Introduction

Overlap studies aid in the decision-making process for the selection or cancellation of online journal titles. Awareness of re search trends and constituent users' needs can help to guide this

process. Cooperative agreements, licensing contracts for online

databases, and the maintenance costs of print subscriptions may further influence purchasing decisions for serial acquisitions. In the spring of 2003 Dr. Betty Jo Kish Irvine, director of the Fine Arts Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, conducted a seminar in art librarianship. One of the class handouts was her unpublished study entitled Comparative Analysis?Overlap Among Key Indexing Sources A575/Irvine/1975. With Dr. Irvine's

permission, selected data from her handout is included in Table III (Key Indexing Sources in 1975) and Table IV.

The current study was conducted to identify journal title

overlap among four major online art indexes. The journal title lists from Art Index Retrospective/Art Full Text, the Bibliography of the History of Art, ARTbibliographies Modern, and the Internationale

Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur were compared to each oth er in pairs. Although Wilson Web allows Art Index Retrospective and Art Full Text to be searched separately, they are actually two

parts of a single index and were tallied as one for this study. A final comparison of all four journal title lists is included in Table I. This study was performed by the author at Indiana University as part of an independent study project during the summer and fall of 2003.

The data provided in this article represents journal titles available as of April 2003. The study does not compare the rela tive breadth of coverage of each title in each online index. Neither

frequency nor accuracy of indexed titles, nor the thoroughness of each indexing service, are explored. These are aspects open to further exploration. The literature review revealed that, while there were many examples of overlap studies in the social sci

ences, no evidence could be found of such published studies in the fine arts.

Methods and Results

In April 2003 the author downloaded journal title lists from each of the online indexes' databases. The titles from each index were then compared to each of the other three indexes to de termine total title overlap among them. At that time, Art Index

Retrospective (AIR) I Art Full Text (AFT) listed 1,020 journal titles; Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur (IBZ) listed

4,597 journal titles; the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) listed 4,360 journal titles; and ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) listed 1,354 journal titles. It is important to note that the IBZ list includes both arts and humanities journal titles; a separate list of art titles was not available from the vendor. The author included IBZ in the study despite the mingling of humanities titles in its

journal title list.

Comparison of Indexes Indexes

ABM BHA

Total

IBZ ABM

Total

IBZ BHA

Total

ABM AIR/AFT

Total

BHA AIR/AFT

Total

IBZ AIR/AFT

Total

ABM BHA IBZ AIR/AFT

Total

ABM BHA AIR/AFT

Titles

1,354 4,360

Overlap

431 431

5,714

4,597 1,354 5,951

4,597 4,360 8,957

1,354 1,020 2,374

4,360 1,020 5,380

4,597 1,020 5,617

5,617 4,360 4,597 1,020

15,594

5,617 4,360 1,020

138 138

605 605

331 331

426 426

200 200

16 16 16 16

65 65 65

% Overlap

32% 10%

3% 10%

13% 14%

24% 32%

10% 42%

4% 20%

0.3% 0.4% 0.3% 1.6%

1.2% 1.5% 6.4%

Total 10,997

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ABM ARTbibliographies Modern AIR / AFT Art Index Retrospective / Art Full Text

BHA Bibliography of the History of Art IBZ Internationale Bibliographie der

Zeitschriftenliteratur

The data reveals some surprising results. Of note is the high percentage (42%) of titles from the AIR/AFT index that overlap with those in the BHA index. Closer examination of the exact titles could aid in collection development decisions and consid erations. However, when comparing IBZ to the other indexes, IBZ's greatest overlap is only 13.9%. Certainly this low percent age is created by the inclusion of humanities titles.

Knowing the breadth and thoroughness of journal title cov

erage is important when selecting among various art indexes.

Coverage may not be comparable for titles in each index, or per haps the journal title coverage in the non-overlap areas is more relevant to users' needs.

The comparison between IBZ and ABM reveals an overlap of 138 titles. For IBZ this represents only 3% of its total number of indexed titles, while for ABM this represents 10%. This data could be useful for both reference and collection development librarians, but, once again, an awareness of specific journal titles used by researchers is required.

The fourth and fifth pairings are particularly interesting. In these two pairings AIR/AFT is matched with both ABM and BHA. In both pairings over 30% of the titles on AIR/AFT can be found on both ABM (32%) and BHA (42%). This data could be

significant for reference service. Perhaps a librarian might start a search in AIR/ AFT for a general title, then refine the search to use either ABM or BHA, depending on the topic. The data might be useful in collection development as well. A librarian with a limited budget may decide to subscribe only to AIR/AFT and not BHA or ABM due to the high overlap between these two indexes and the AIR/AFT index.

Conclusion

Overlap studies aid in making decisions about selecting on line and print journals to ensure availability for local users. The results of this study and others like it aid reference services and collection development discussions. Knowing the coverage and

range of particular databases allows for a more precise reference

transaction. Such awareness may help to determine whether or

not a subscription to a particular index is necessary or relevant

for a library's users. Ultimately, art and humanities reference

and collection development librarians need to be aware of the

journal title overlap of online art indexes to provide enhanced and efficient service to their users.

TABLES

Table I includes the titles of sixteen journals that are indexed

among all four contemporary indexing sources. Table II includes the titles of sixty-five journals that overlap among three indexes. Table III includes the seven indexing sources used by Dr. Irvine in her unpublished study from 1975. Table IV lists the titles of

twenty-two journals found to have been indexed by the index

ing sources she studied. The journal titles listed in Table V are derived from comparing Table I and Table IV. The result is a list of six common titles.

TABLE I: Total Overlap for All Four Indexes - IBZ, ABM, AIR/AFT, BHA

Apollo Archives of American Art The British Journal of Aesthetics Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of the Arts The Burlington Magazine Du Flash Art Gazette des Beaux Arts

Goya Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Journal of Glass Studies

Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch Winterthur Portfolio Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins f?r Kunstwissenschaft Zeitschrift f?r Kunstgeschichte

TABLE II: Total Overlap for Three Out of Four Indexes - ABM, AIR/

AFT, BHA

Afterimage The American Art Journal American Artist

Apollo Architect The Architectural Review Archives of American Art Journal Archivo Espa?ol de Arte Art & Artists The Art Bulletin Art in America Art Journal Arts of Asia Bollettino deArte Bulletin Mus?es Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Bulletin of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum The Burlington Magazine Canadian Art Ceramics Monthly The Cincinnati Art Museum Bulletin Connaissance des Arts

Connoisseur

Design

Volume 24, Number 1 ? 2005 ? Art Documentation 27

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Design Quarterly Du Flash Art Gazette des Beaux-Arts (ceased)

Goya Graphis History of Photography Image Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism The Journal of Canadian Art History Journal of Glass Studies The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery Landscape Leonardo

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin M?nchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst Museum

Museum News

Museum Studies Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek Oriental Art Pantheon

Print The Print Collector s Newsletter Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University Revue Belge d'Arch?ologie et d'Histoire de l'Art Saint Louis Art Museum Bulletin Studies in Conservation Studio International Textile Museum Journal Tidskrift Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch Winterthur Portfolio Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins f?r Kunstwissenschaft Zeitsch rift f? r Kunstgesch ich te

TABLE III: Key Indexing Sources in 1975 as Identified by Betty Jo Irvine

ARTbibliographies Modern Art Index

Bibliographie der Deutschen Zeitschriftenliteratur Bibliographie der Fremdsprachigen Zeitenschriftenliteratur R?pertoire d'Art et d'Arch?ologie Ryerson Index to Art Periodicals

R?pertoire International de la Litt?rature de l'Art

TABLE IV: Journal Titles that Overlap Between the Indexing Sources Listed in Table III

Apollo The Art Bulletin

Artforum Art in America Art News Art Quarterly The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art The Burlington Magazine Commentari

Connoisseur

Critica d'Arte

Gazette des Beaux-Arts

Goya Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

Master Drawings Oud-Holland Pantheon

Paragone Revue du Louvre RIBA Journal Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch Zeitschrift f?r Kunstgeschichte

TABLE V: Journal Title Overlap Between Table I and Table IV:

Apollo The Burlington Magazine Gazette des Beaux Arts

Goya Wallraf-Richartz-)'ahrbuch

Zeitschrift f?r Kunstgeschichte

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Tony White, Art and Architecture Librarian/Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute Library, Brooklyn, NY, twhite@pratt.edu

28 Art Documentation ? Volume 24, Number 1 ? 2005

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