Dear Colleague,

Because your association with the Getty Information Institute and
with our work has been so important, I am writing to let you know
about some organizational changes that are currently under way.

Barry Munitz, our new President, has been talking for some time about
ways in which the various Getty institutes might be reorganized to
promote and take advantage of a greater integration of programming
across the Getty.  Each Getty institute has been subject to an
analysis as part of a larger Trust-wide exploration.  I am happy to
say that the report of the Information Institute review team pointed
to the high quality of our products and activities, as well as to the
outstanding achievements of our staff.

While we have been assured that much of our work will continue to
have a place within the Getty, the organizational context will change
and there will no longer be a separate Information Institute.  The
process for making and implementing all the decisions that attend such
a major change is currently being developed  You will be kept informed
as the decision-making process develops.  Rest assured that the work
of the Information Institute will continue during this period of
transition.

I am very proud of what all of us have accomplished over the past ten
years.  We led a national and international movement that has inspired
cultural organizations to collaborate in new ways to build an
infrastructure for the future of arts and humanities information.  It
is particularly gratifying to have played an instrumental role in the
conception and implementation of the following projects:  the Union
List of Artist Names, the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names,
Categories for the Description of Works of Art, Protecting Cultural
Objects in the Global Information Society (Object ID), the Museum
Educational Site Licensing Project, and L.A. Culture Net/Faces of L.A.
 The dedication and hard work of my staff and of many of you helped to
make these projects a reality.

These initiatives, taken together with the extraordinarily valuable
and pioneering projects that were adopted and fostered first by the
Art History Information Program and then by the Information Institute,
such as the Bibliography of the History of Art/RILA, the Avery Index
to Architectural Periodicals, the Provenance Index, the Art &
Architecture Thesaurus, the Census of Antique Art and Architecture
Known to the Renaissance, the Witt Computer Index, and the Foundation
for Documents of Architecture/Architectural Drawings Advisory Group,
will serve as models for collaboration and set the standards for
high-quality digital information about art and architecture for years
to come.  Even with our fine staff, we could not have achieved these
remarkable results without the dedicated and unstinting participation
of hundreds of colleagues nationally and internationally.  For this,
we all offer you our heartfelt thanks.

It has been a privilege to be so closely associated with such
outstanding accomplishments.  I am confident that they, and the very
talented people who have worked so hard to realize them, will continue
to serve the best interests of art and culture, as will I, as I move
on to new initiatives.

Sincerely,

Eleanor E. Fink
Director
Getty Information Institute