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Overview
The Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (AKL) - Internationale Künstlerdatenbank - Online Artists of the World Online is a lexicon project started in 1969, currently offered through De Gruyter Online. It assembles data about artists from the standard art history works Thieme-Becker (published in 37 volumes from 1907 to 1950) and Vollmer (6 volumes, 1953–62), the Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon, and the Lexikon der Künstlerinnen. The AKL Online is updated on a continuing basis.
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The Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (AKL) - Internationale Künstlerdatenbank - Online/Artists of the World Online is a digital version of the reference work originally compiled in print form beginning in 1969, and currently offered through De Gruyter Online. It assembles data about artists from the standard art history works Thieme-Becker (published in 37 volumes from 1907 to 1950) and Vollmer (6 volumes, 1953–62), the Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon, the Lexikon der Künstlerinnen, and the Künstlerlexikon der Antike (KLA)-Lexicon of Classical Artists.
The online database represents an expansion of the print/CD-ROM edition by the same title offered by KG Saur since 1991. The last Saur edition was published in 2009 when the print edition and the online database became available through Walter De Gruyter. It now indexes over 1.2 million artists dating from antiquity to the present, from all over the world, and representing many artistic genres. Biographical entries often include references to holding collections and related publications. The AKL Online also contains over 500,000 signed biographical articles searchable in full-text. It does not include images of artists or their works. The biographical entries can be displayed in German or English but the articles are primarily available in German.
The AKL Online is updated on a continuing basis. The online version provides a significant amount of additional content over the print edition. More than 5,000 specialist authors from all over the world contribute to the AKL. Several thousand art history sources are continually evaluated using publishing and art historical standards in order to provide more details about artists and their works, their significance, exhibitions, and reference sources. Approximately 3,500 new biographical articles are added each year, some of which are first published electronically in the AKL Online before they appear in print. Subscribers are notified of these updates through RSS feeds, ensuring the timely delivery of new content.
The highly respected source works, and the publisher’s commitment to ongoing development and well-conceived interfaces (in English and in German), makes this potentially a useful tool for both art history students and researchers. It would be appropriate for academic libraries and museums as well as dealers, collectors, and independent professionals in art and antiques.
Delivery
Interface
The user can choose a German or English interface and quickly switch between the two languages. A single search box on the opening page expands with a click into three sets of qualified search boxes. Subsequent clicks will display additional sets of search boxes enabling the refinement of the query. Each search box is accompanied by a choice of operators (and/or/not) and a drop-down list of nine values, including Name, All dates, Date of Birth, Date of Death, Place, Country, Occupation, Author, and Full-text. While typing in a search term, a drop-down word wheel offers approximately 20 nearby terms. This is especially helpful for international place names that may have several variant spellings.
Results are brief displays of the artists' name, occupation, and a date. It is possible to display up to 100 results at a time. A click on the artist name will bring up a more detailed display of approximately ten fields, plus articles, exhibitions, and references if present in the data.
A brief search help document in German and English explains the fields. Phrases can be searched by surrounding the text with quotation marks, and asterisks can be used as wildcards to truncate a search. In addition, three documents translate general abbreviations (primarily for German words), abbreviations for place names, and those for publishing places.
Metadata
The metadata may be searched in English or German with equal results. Artists’ names have been standardized. Geographic terms include the names of places that were influential in the development of an artist’s work, e.g. places where an artist went for training or lived for an extended period of time. There have been efforts to include place name translations in the metadata. For example, Moscow brings up just four entries for Moscow (Idaho). Moskau brings up 5,230 hits. Mosca, Moscú, Moscou, Moskwa all bring up the same number of hits (4,842).
The data from the Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon can be purchased separately for integration in internal databases as authority files of artists’ names.
The Künstlerlexikon der Antike (KLA)-Lexicon of Classical Artists, a separate De Gruyter publication, is included in the AKL Online. The KLA provides data for all artists of ancient times that are known by name.
The AKL Online links to the database Gemälde in Museen-Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz/Paintings in Museums-Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Katalog der ausgestellten und depotgelagerten Werke/Catalogue of Exhibited Works and Depository Holdings (for purchasers of this database).
Limitations
It is difficult to search on date spans or geographic areas, such as BCE or Oceania, in the metadata. The dates in the biographical metadata represent birth and death dates only. The geographic metadata does not articulate regions. Users might have better results searching these terms in free-text.
The word wheel has obvious benefits but is a bit intrusive, sometimes filling in suggested terms before one has finished typing out the query. The user needs to be mindful to close the list before clicking the search button.
Since the articles are primarily in German, it is necessary to translate search terms from English to German in order to effectively search the articles. A search on Place=“Egypt” and Full-text=“exhibitions" has no results. The search is more successful by replacing "exhibitions” with the German equivalent “Ausstellungen” or its abbreviation “Ausst.” The articles use many abbreviations and the user is advised to consult the provided lists of abbreviations in PDF.
Strengths and Weaknesses
A major strength of this artists' biographical database is the breadth of its content, including: worldwide geographic coverage, an expansive date range (antiquity to the present), and a comprehensive index of artistic endeavors and media. The fact that it compiles data from respected source works and is continually updated is a fundamental asset. There is also significant value in its clear interface layout and apparent excellent response time. In trial access it quickly searched 1.2 million artists and presented several thousand results or just a few specific hits with ease.
Non-specialist users may find limitations. Not only are the articles primarily in German but abbreviations are used frequently for art terms and source works. It may not be immediately obvious to the novice user that it is essential to consult the linked PDF guides to abbreviations in order to effectively search the articles.
Reviewers
Center for Research Libraries
- Diane Ryan - Librarian
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