The books are available to read online or download as PDFs. Getty President and CEO James Cuno launched the Virtual Library in a blog post today.
“Last year we made freely available thousands of images of works in our collections that were in the public domain or to which we held all the rights,” said Cuno. “As a next step in our increasing digital engagement, we are now making hundreds of publications—many of which are out of print—freely available to scholars and the interested public around the world.”
The publications, the earliest of which dates from 1966, span the Getty’s rich publishing history, and include collection catalogues that highlight masterpieces from Getty collections, translations of groundbreaking texts on the visual arts, essential works of art historical research, exhibition catalogues, journals, and publications that serve as key resources in the conservation of the world’s cultural heritage. The Virtual Library includes titles published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Research Institute. Titles will be added to the Virtual Library on an ongoing basis.
The titles are fully searchable, and most of them are accompanied by a description, a table of contents, and author biographies. Links are provided to help locate a print edition in a local library through WorldCat and to purchase books that are still available for sale.
“Creating the Virtual Library comes out of the Getty’s conviction that an appreciation of the arts is crucial to a vital and civil society,” said Cuno. “We are committed to sharing our educational resources as part of our mission to promote knowledge and understanding of the visual arts in all their dimensions, and we are delighted to give these important works of research and scholarship a presence in the digital sphere.”