Message-Id: <199808172148.OAA19100@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 14:46:04 -0800 From: James Bower <mailto:JBower@GETTY.EDU> Subject: Letter from Eleanor Fink re: Getty Information Institute To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Dear Colleagues,Because your association with the Getty Information Institute and with our work has been so important, I am writing to let you know about some organizational changes that are currently under way.
Barry Munitz, our new President, has been talking for some time about ways in which the various Getty institutes might be reorganized to promote and take advantage of a greater integration of programming across the Getty. Each Getty institute has been subject to an analysis as part of a larger Trust-wide exploration. I am happy to say that the report of the Information Institute review team pointed to the high quality of our products and activities, as well as to the outstanding achievements of our staff.
While we have been assured that much of our work will continue to have a place within the Getty, the organizational context will change and there will no longer be a separate Information Institute. The process for making and implementing all the decisions that attend such a major change is currently being developed You will be kept informed as the decision-making process develops. Rest assured that the work of the Information Institute will continue during this period of transition.
I am very proud of what all of us have accomplished over the past ten years. We led a national and international movement that has inspired cultural organizations to collaborate in new ways to build an infrastructure for the future of arts and humanities information. It is particularly gratifying to have played an instrumental role in the conception and implementation of the following projects: the Union List of Artist Names, the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names, Categories for the Description of Works of Art, Protecting Cultural Objects in the Global Information Society (Object ID), the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project, and L.A. Culture Net/Faces of L.A. The dedication and hard work of my staff and of many of you helped to make these projects a reality.
These initiatives, taken together with the extraordinarily valuable and pioneering projects that were adopted and fostered first by the Art History Information Program and then by the Information Institute, such as the Bibliography of the History of Art/RILA, the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, the Provenance Index, the Art & Architecture Thesaurus, the Census of Antique Art and Architecture Known to the Renaissance, the Witt Computer Index, and the Foundation for Documents of Architecture/Architectural Drawings Advisory Group, will serve as models for collaboration and set the standards for high-quality digital information about art and architecture for years to come. Even with our fine staff, we could not have achieved these remarkable results without the dedicated and unstinting participation of hundreds of colleagues nationally and internationally. For this, we all offer you our heartfelt thanks.
It has been a privilege to be so closely associated with such outstanding accomplishments. I am confident that they, and the very talented people who have worked so hard to realize them, will continue to serve the best interests of art and culture, as will I, as I move on to new initiatives.
Sincerely,
Eleanor E. Fink Director Getty Information Institute