The initiative announced in today’s column by Carol Vogel may have very far reaching implications (if the museum ever truly grasps the medium instead of trying to get long tail sales of out-of-print catalogues)  as the body of scholarly work on art history becomes more and more accessible:

 the museum on Friday began MetPublications, an online resource that will allow users to search more than 600 catalogs, journals and museum bulletins by title, keyword, publication type, theme or collection. Of that number, 368 are out-of-print catalogs and publications that can be previewed and searched. Also available on the site are 272 titles still in print. It will be possible to obtain on-demand copies of 140 out-of-print books and to get paperbound editions with digitally printed color reproductions through Yale University Press. “What’s value-added is the extent the team has cross-linked to all the Met’s artworks,” Mr. Campbell said. MetPublications includes a description and table of contents for almost every book as well as information about the authors, reviews of the books and links to related publications and art in the museum’s collections.

Met’s Exhibition Catalogs Revived for a Digital Life (Inside Art/NYTimes)