Scholarship and Digital Publications: Where Research Meets Innovative Technology

This article examines the methodology of the Art Institute of Chicago's online scholarly catalogs. Beginning in 2009, the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) was invited along with a group of other museums by the Getty Foundation to create an online scholarly collection catalog. The AIC thoughtfully considered how technology could best serve art history and produce innovative scholarship before launching the beta online catalogs Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (http://publications.artic.edu/reader/monet-paintings-and-drawings-art-institute-chicago) and Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (http://publications.artic.edu/reader/renoir-paintings-and-drawings-art-institute-chicago), in November 2011. By combining the traditional hallmarks of printed catalogs with the seemingly limitless possibilities of technology, a visionary online publishing environment was created. This paper also analyzes scholars' responses to the catalogs and what their feedback means for the future of digital scholarship.