Art History

Works in art history are increasingly being published in digital formats, and open access plays an important role in this regard. For example, Heidelberg University Library, together with its Specialised Information Service Art, Design, Photography, arthistoricum.net, have jointly developed strategies for digital publishing in the arts with representatives of the professional associations in the field of art history. Particularly in Die Zukunft des kunsthistorischen Publizierens [The Future of Art Historical Publishing]), an e-book edited by Maria Effinger and Hubertus Kohle (2021), the possibilities of digital publishing are set out in numerous contributions from an art history perspective. These thoughts were further developed by Maria Effinger (2023) in an article entitled “Kunstgeschichte kommunizieren? Aufgaben, Herausforderungen und Weiterentwicklungspotenziale beim elektronischen Publizieren im Open Access” [Tasks, Challenges, and Potential for Further Development When Publishing Electronically in Open Access]. A further fundamental work entitled Digitales Publizieren in den Geisteswissenschaften: Begriffe, Standards, Empfehlungen [Digital Publishing in the Humanities: Concepts, Standards, Recommendations] (AG Digitales Publizieren, 2021) was published by the Digital Publishing Working Group of the association Digital Humanities in the German-Speaking Area (DHd). Veronika Fischer and Grischka Petri’s (2022) guide Bildrechte in der kunsthistorischen Praxis [Image Rights in Art Historical Practice] provides answers to questions about image rights.

As of September 2025, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 581 titles under the keyword History of art and 36 titles under History of art/art & design styles, while the OAPEN Library (OAPEN) listed 27 titles under History of art/art & design styles. Many international museums and research institutions, for example the Getty Research Institute’s Getty Publications Virtual Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetPublications, and the Canadian Online Art Book Project, now offer cost-free access to a selection of their books.

The open access publication platform arthistoricum.net ART-Books, which is provided by Heidelberg University Library, publishes open access scholarly e-books from the fields of art history, photography, and design (gold open access) and also makes digital versions of print books from these fields available to the public (green open access). The cost-free offering is addressed to art historians worldwide. The platform uses the open source software Open Monograph Press (OMP), which is provided by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP).

Subject Portals and Platforms

• The information and service portal for art history arthistoricum.net is operated by the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) and Heidelberg University Library.
• The Digital Art History Research Group, a platform for digital art history, promotes networking among scholars in the field of art history who develop, use, and theoretically reflect on digital tools and methods.
• The Deutsche Verband für Kunstgeschichte e. V. (German Association for Art History) represents the interest of art historians working in Germany and at German institutions abroad.
• The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now make available open access content of relevance to art historians.

Databases and the Like

• The Art Discovery Group Catalogue is an international database with holdings from art and museum libraries in the USA and Europe.
• Via arthistoricum.net’s catalogue, users can search for literature of relevance to art history. Searches in the full texts of collections and in image sources and disciplinary repositories are also possible.
• The Getty Research Portal is a subject portal of the Getty Research Institute. The portal offers worldwide open access to digitized art history literature.
• The Database Information System (DBIS) provides an overview of databases in the areas of art history and architecture.

 Image Databases

• The Bildarchiv Foto Marburg at Philipps-Universität Marburg is the German Documentation Centre for Art History. With around 2.6 million images, it is one of the largest digital image archives for European art and architecture.
• With around 7 million digitized images, the Deutsche Fotothek is a universal archive of art and cultural history. It is located at the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB).
• heidICON is Heidelberg University Library’s object and multimedia database.
• prometheus is a distributed digital image archive for research and teaching located at the Department of Art History at the University of Cologne. With almost 4 million high-quality digitized images from the fields of art and archaeology, the web-based collection currently connects 128 databases from institutes, research facilities, and museums on a common user interface.