The V&A has been offering free use of its images for this community for over 18 months. See the link at
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/ Images up to A5 in size and a print run of below 4000 allows such use. James Stevenson James Stevenson Photographic Manager Victoria and Albert Museum South Kensington London UK tel +44 (0) 207 942 2545 fax +44 (0) 207 942 2746 www.vam.ac.uk >>> David Green <davidgreen at knowledgeculture.com> 13/02/2009 13:57 >>> A note on Humanist you all might find of interest, forwarded from Dot Porter on Humanist. Many of us, of course, have been advocating for such a workable "network of mutual trust and cooperation between scholars and curators of cultural heritage collections with a view to facilitating access to and the scholarly use of visual media." The emphasis here is not so much on the technology but that "network of mutual trust and cooperation." David Begin forwarded message: > > > ********************** > > From: Dr. Christine von Oertzen coertzen at mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de > Date: 22 January 2009 > > Call for Open Access to Digital Images > > The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), a > co-initiator of the OpenAccess movement, has drawn up a set of > best-practice recommendations concerning the scholarly use of visual > media. The recommendations aimed at facilitating the scholarly use and > publication of historical digital images were drafted following > consultations with scholars and representatives of leading museums, > libraries, image archives and publishers. The aim of the document is > to create a network of mutual trust and cooperation between scholars > and curators of cultural heritage collections with a view to > facilitating access to and the scholarly use of visual media. The > recommendations can be downloaded from the MIPWG website which > currently features a detailed report on the initiative. > > The recommendations were prompted by the barriers encountered by those > who wish to use and publish images of cultural heritage objects. High > license fees and complicated access regulations make it increasingly > difficult for scholars in the humanities to work with digital images. > It is true that the digitization of image collections has acted as a > catalyst for scholarly research. However, archives, collections and > libraries differ greatly with respect to the question of how, where > and on what basis images may be used for scholarly purposes. Moreover, > their policies in this regard are becoming increasingly restrictive, > especially when it comes to new forms of e-publishing. > > The MPIWG drew up its recommendations for facilitating the scholarly > use of digital images following consultations with international > experts which took place in January 2008. The recommendations call on > curators and scholars to develop a mutually binding network of trust. > > The aim of the initiative is to encourage stakeholders jointly to > address the current and future challenges raised by the digital age. > > The document urges curators to refrain from restricting the public > domain arbitrarily and calls on them to accommodate the needs of > scholars for reasonably-priced or freely-accessible high-resolution > digital images - both for print publications and new Web-based forms > of scholarly publishing. It exhorts scholars to recognise museums, > libraries and collections as owners and custodians of physical objects > of cultural heritage and to acknowledge their efforts in making > digital images available. Moreover, it urges them to take their role > as guarantors of authenticity and accurate attribution extremely > seriously. > > Website: > http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/news/features/feature4/ > > -- > Dot Porter (MA, MSLS) Metadata Manager > Digital Humanities Observatory (RIA), Pembroke House, 28-32 Upper > Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, Ireland > -- A Project of the Royal Irish Academy -- > Phone: +353 1 234 2444 Fax: +353 1 234 2400 > http://dho.ie Email: dot.porter at gmail.com > _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. 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