The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has approved a $50,000 grant to the University of Miami to support planning for and initial development of an International Cultural Heritage Law Bibliography (“ICHLB”). UM Law Professors Stephen K. Urice and Sally H. Wise are co-principal investigators under the grant. ICHLB will be the first, fully-abstracted, on-line bibliographic data base in cultural heritage law and policy, a field encompassing the disciplines of art law, museum law, cultural property law, and preservation law. Professor Urice, an internationally recognized expert in cultural property law, joined the UM faculty this academic year. Professor Wise, nationally recognized for her expertise in law librarianship, serves as director of the UM Law School library. UM Law School librarians Robin Schard and Helen Wohl will also serve on the project team.

ICHLB is a collaborative undertaking among the University of Miami School of Law, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the Project for Cultural Heritage Law & Policy. The Project, founded in 2003 and directed by Professor Urice, completed an initial feasibility study of ICHLB in 2004-6. The Mellon grant permits ICHLB to move to its next phase: planning and development.

Over the next six months, the collaborators will examine such issues as ICHLB’s subject and document scope, creation of a classification system (a searching aid) for materials in this developing field of legal scholarship, and ICHLB’s long-term sustainability. The findings will be presented for review at a meeting of an international advisory board at the Law School next summer.

Related Links

• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Website
• Professor Stephen K. Urice's Website
• Professor Sally H. Wise's Website

posted 19-March-2007