Facilitating Global Art Conversations: Availability of Art Scholarship in Latin America

• Main Author: Alexander Watkins
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta 2016-12-01
• Series: Evidence Based Library and Information Practice
• Online Access: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/eblip/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/28166

Objective – As art history becomes an increasingly global discipline, the question of geographically equitable access to the scholarly knowledge produced at universities in Europe and North America remains unexamined. This study aims to begin to answer that question by investigating the availability of art scholarship in Latin America. Methods – Sixty university libraries in Latin America were checked for various kinds of access to two major art history journals. Results – The study found that access rates were low, and that the types of access available were suboptimal. Conclusion – The results suggest that the current level of access is insufficient to support global scholarly conversations in art history and that current modes of dissemination of scholarship are not reaching key audiences.