The challenge of the acquisition of the Bettmann Archive by Corbis

'fhe journal is edited by David Bearman, whose authorship may be presumed for all items not otherwise attributed. Submissions of press releases, publications, and software for review, articles and letters to the editor are welcomed. Copy is preferred double-spaced. Longer articles will be requested in machine-readabe form if accepted for publication. Deadlines for contributed articles and press releases are the 15th of March, June, September, and December. Subscriptions are available on a calendar year basis at $90.00 for institutions, $50.00 for individuals (paid in advance, by personal check, and delivered to their home address), $25.00 for individuals employed with subscribing institutions (mailed to business address), with a surcharge of $10.00 outside the Western Hemisphere. Back issues are also available at a reduced price. All payments must be made in US currency. Credit cards are not accepted. Archives & Museum Informatics also publishes occasional technical reports available for purchase as individual volumes or on a standing order basis. Standing orders are entitled to a 10% pre-publication discount and are mailed free of handling fees. Prepaid orders include handling. Billed orders are subject to a $5.00 billing/handling fee. Current titles can be obtained from the above address. EDITORIAL The Challenge of the Acquisition of the Bettmann Archive by Corbis During the International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums, the news that Corbis had purchased the Bettmann Archive was announced. If it was to happen, I think the announcement could not have come at a better time; most ofthe people in the world who were thinking about how to make the collections of their archives and museums available digitally were gathered in San Diego. Here they learned together of the challenge that the private sector will pose for cultural institutions. The Bettmann Archive is an almost legendary collection of over 17 million historical, contemporary, and news images from the past fifty years of photography and one of the major image licensing entities in the world. The partnership with Corbis will presumably enable Corbis to provide digital versions ofthe Bettmann holdings to an expanded and more popular community of clients worldwide. The ease with which users might be able to obtain images ofvirtually anything imaginable within the Bettman collection forces the non-profit cultural sector-libraries, archives and museums-to think carefully about whether and how they can position themselves to earn income from their digitized holdings, or reach popular audiences with what they (rightly) consider …