RESEARCH PRACTICES OF HUMANITIES SCHOLARS IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT - THE GETTY ONLINE SEARCHING PROJECT REPORT NO-3

Use of online databases by humanities scholars searching as end users was monitored in a 2-year project conducted by the Getty Art History I nformation Program. Visiting Scholars at the Getty Center for the Hist ory of Art and the Humanities in Santa Monica, California, were offere d the opportunity to do unlimited subsidized searching of DIALOG(R) da tabases. This third report from the project presents results of interv iews conducted with the scholars regarding their experiences with sear ching, the role the searching took in their broader research activitie s, and their attitudes about the future of online searching in the hum anities. Scholars found the experience stimulating and novel, with com ments ranging from its ''addictive'' properties to a ''Sorcerer's Appr entice'' quality to complaints about the ''industrialization of schola rship.'' Generally, the scholars saw DIALOG searching as supplementing their usual research methods, and not changing them in a fundamental way. Online searching was seen as particularly useful for interdiscipl inary research, and as possibly setting a new standard for the extent of literature that should be reviewed. Identified problems were about equally divided between difficulties with the search interface and lac k of desired types of resources. All foresaw online searching being us ed in the future by arts and humanities scholars.