The Future of Art Bibliography (FAB) initiative developed out of various conversations among colleagues in the United States and Europe. Concerns in the art historical community about limited funding resources for art libraries and projects internationally and the cessation of the Getty's support for the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) provided the catalyst for a Kress Foundation grant to the Getty Research Institute.

What ensued was a series of international meetings of art librarians, art historians, publishers, and information technologists to review current practices, take stock of changes, and develop more sustainable and collaborative ways of supporting the bibliography of art history in the future. An international community-driven initiative arose from these early FAB meetings, one that envisions a global approach to an ever-evolving definition of what is meant by bibliography.

Updated information regarding developments, publications, past meetings, and notices of future meetings is posted to this web page.

Pasadena, April 2013
ARLIS/NA Annual Conference
Building collective solutions: The 4th Future of Art Bibliography initiative annual update

Amsterdam, April 2013
artlibraries.net committee meeting with OCLC regarding the future of artlibraries.net in the FAB context

Art Documentation volume 31, no. 2 (2012)
"Future of Art Bibliography initiative: Charting a new future"

The Getty Iris, April 20, 2010
"The Future of Art Bibliography"

Art Libraries Journal, volume 36, no.2 (2011)
Special issue on the future of art bibliography.

Paris, September 2012
Fifth artlibraries.net general meeting/FAB meeting

Helsinki, August 2012
IFLA Art Libraries Section Open Session
"Federated metasearches, boon or bane?"

Los Angeles, May 2012
Getty Research Portal Launch and Colloquium

Toronto, March 2012
ARLIS Annual Conference
"Future of Art Bibliography update"

Los Angeles, February 2012
College Art Association Annual Conference
"A Portal for Digitized Art-Historical Texts: Unified Access to the Early Literature of Art History" (PDF, 2.20MB, 27pp.)

Paris, October 2011
FAB Steering Committee/Getty Research Portal Meeting

Zurich, June 23–24, 2011
artlibraries.net Meeting with FAB Steering Committee

Minneapolis, March 24, 2011
VRA+ARLIS/NA Joint Conference

Los Angeles, March 14–16, 2011
Meeting to launch a pilot project: the FAB Digital Registry of Art Historical Texts (PDF, 189KB, 1pp.)

New York, February 12, 2011
College Art Association Annual Conference

Lisbon, Portugal, October 28–29, 2010
artlibraries.net meeting (agenda) (PDF, 199KB, 3pp.)
See Lisbon meeting overview by Uwe Dierolf, "Artlibraries.net: Bericht uber die 4.artlibraries.net Konferenz vom 28 bis 30 Oktober in Lissabon" in BIT online 13 (2010), Nr. 4. pp. 409–410

Gothenburg, Sweden, August 13, 2010
IFLA, Art Libraries Section

Gothenburg, Sweden, August 11, 2010
IFLA conference, Papers presented in Art Libraries section conference session: Open access and digital resources

Los Angeles, June 21–23, 2010
The Future of Art Bibliography Supplemental Meeting (report) (PDF, 559KB, 11pp.)

Boston, April 25, 2010
The Future of Art Bibliography update, an ad hoc session at the ARLIS/NA annual conference

New York, April 21–22, 2010
The Future of Art Bibliography in the 21st Century (report) (PDF, 643KB, 12pp.)