The Anthropological Index Online is the anthropological index to current periodicals in the Anthropology Library, Centre for Anthropology, British Museum (incorporating the former Royal Anthropological Institute library).

From 1963 to 1994, The Anthropological Index traced our field's periodical literature on printed paper. It was valued as a bibliographical quarterly by a few hundred libraries but many anthropologists were unaware of its existence.

Anthropological Index Online (AIO) now marks its trace in bytes on the Internet, and participates in that medium's extraordinary growth. It was first made available online in March 1997 with the general financial support of the William Buller Fagg Charitable Trust and the practical support of the Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing (CSAC) at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Anthropologists, students and other researchers are finding it invaluable for locating references to journal articles by author's name, title, keyword etc.

New data is being added on a continuing basis and is available only online. Improvements are planned.

Introduction of institutional subscription

At the moment AIO is supported by its institutional users, but it is free to individual users. We hope to keep it out of the commercial sector permanently. This has been possible for the time being thanks to a friendly foundation set up under the Will of W.B.Fagg, the well-known Africanist. However, the costs are around £41,000 or US$64,000 per year - mainly salaries, because our Website costs are minimal - and the Fagg Trust's grants are time-limited.

With effect from 2000 we have introduced a subscription service in which heavy institutional academic users must pay if they are making use of the service. The subscription fee is £290 plus VAT per year in the UK or US$510 per year overseas.

Many libraries have subscribed. The Fagg Trust has offered some continued tapering grant aid in order to help us get the new financing scheme established.

We trust the individual anthropologists as well as librarians and institution heads will support this scheme. At least 165 institutional subscriptions are needed to cover costs. With access figures rising to a peak of up to 44,500 in one month, we think we have a good chance of building up a reliable funding base for this innovative service.

Yes, I would like to subscribe

I cannot myself authorise an institutional subscription, but I will place it before our Librarian or Head of Information Resources

The data is © Copyright RAI and use is permitted for educational non-commercial purposes (including private study). Commercial institutions wishing to use Anthropological Index Online are asked to contact the RAI to arrange access.

Search Anthropological Index Online http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/uncgi/Search_AI/search_bib_ai/anthind

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The Anthropological Index Online of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Introduction of institutional subscription

The Anthropological Index Online
of the Royal Anthropological Institute