Re: [h-cost] how museums can help costumers
Astrida: I must, unfortunately, agree with you. We haven't had time or funding to put all of our existing objects on the web, much less hi-res ones for detail. It is a sad commentary on what we would like to do for ourselves and the public and what is possible. Additionally, there are some museums that are unwilling to put up details and hi-res photos up because of copyright issues. On 11/11/10 4:52 PM, Schaeffer, Astrida astrida.schaef...@unh.edu wrote: Then I think one of the most useful things a museum could do would be lots of photos and get some darned closeups. The pictures I looked at on the from the link you posted for the Smithsonian didn't have anything that wasn't full length - no details at all. OTOH, some pictures I've seen from the VA get so close I could chart the knit or beaded designs. I really appreciate that kind of information online since it's unlikely I'll ever get to go to the museum. I work for a museum. We have a grand total of 4 staff. We all wear so many hats we can't keep track of them all. Personally, I'm responsible for the collection, the exhibitions, all museum security, the desktop publishing, supervising student fellows and work-studies, managing the climate control system, the museum shop, and more. I'd LOVE to have that level of detail for everything in the collection even for our own purposes let alone for interested visitors, but it's neither a time nor financial possibility at the moment... Astrida *** Astrida Schaeffer, Exhibitions and Collections Manager Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire Paul Creative Arts Center 30 Academic Way Durham, NH 03824-3538 603-862-0310 FAX: 603-862-2191 www.unh.edu/moa *** ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] how museums can help costumers
In a message dated 11/12/2010 7:56:27 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, manordto...@stthomas.edu writes: Additionally, there are some museums that are unwilling to put up details and hi-res photos up because of copyright issues. And I guess that suggests something else WE can do to help museums--only use any images we acquire, whether on-line or in person, in an ethical way. I don't want to start the whole discussion about intellectual property again, but I hope people will remember that, just because something is posted on a website, doesn't mean one can take it and use it any way one wants to. But, on the flip side, I found when I was writing my book that some museums seem to view publication rights as a cash cow and are charging exorbitant rates. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect them to give them away, and I know funding is tight (I also work at a museum), but a couple--and absolutely perfect examples--were just into the stratosphere, and I didn't have the budget for them. I know photography costs money, too, but if the image already exists, I wish the rights could be more reasonable. Ann Wass ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] how museums can help costumers
And publishers cannot afford to support images for books either. The Swede are developing a process for inexpensive publication photos. This might be helpful there, at least. On 11/12/10 7:08 AM, annbw...@aol.com annbw...@aol.com wrote: In a message dated 11/12/2010 7:56:27 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, manordto...@stthomas.edu writes: Additionally, there are some museums that are unwilling to put up details and hi-res photos up because of copyright issues. And I guess that suggests something else WE can do to help museums--only use any images we acquire, whether on-line or in person, in an ethical way. I don't want to start the whole discussion about intellectual property again, but I hope people will remember that, just because something is posted on a website, doesn't mean one can take it and use it any way one wants to. But, on the flip side, I found when I was writing my book that some museums seem to view publication rights as a cash cow and are charging exorbitant rates. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect them to give them away, and I know funding is tight (I also work at a museum), but a couple--and absolutely perfect examples--were just into the stratosphere, and I didn't have the budget for them. I know photography costs money, too, but if the image already exists, I wish the rights could be more reasonable. Ann Wass ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] how museums can help costumers
On 11/12/2010 4:55 AM, Nordtorp-Madson, Michelle A. wrote : Snip Additionally, there are some museums that are unwilling to put up details and hi-res photos up because of copyright issues. Ah the dread Copyright issue and who actually owns historic items, particularly those in publicly funded institutions (those that are completely privately funded are a different story - don't Hit Me!). Along with the who owns Human History issue. There is going to have to be some kind of accommodation made so that both parties come out of this well. Think of all the books that were lost when the Danube flooded and destroyed them. The items we know only from a few black and white photos because war washed across the museums/castles/places where they were kept and they are forever gone and heartbreaking for everyone but should be most for those whose entire lives are devoted to keeping such safe and, hopefully available, to scholars. The items that are being so desperately protected for their copyright value are simply candles in the wind. Ask the museums in San Francisco about the work they are doing getting their collections up since they Know how vulnerable they are. Here in Oregon we never thought of anything much. Even the big Volcano going off about 20 years ago didn't strike at real populated areas (watch out Seattle though!). However that little shake a few years back put a large library of medieval manuscripts in severe danger as part of the Abbey they are stored, and generously open to the public with request, was severely damaged by a fault we didn't quite realize was there. Personnel are a problem, but Google and at one time Micro Soft had done a lot to solve the digitization problem to get things up on the web for all of us and EEBO for those who can pay for it. Possibly something similar could be done for items like paintings and other such items could be worked out? More available knowledge can only be a blessing. Now we have to see how we can make that a blessing for both the holders of the original items and those who want to see but not necessarily touch :-) We need a win/win situation for both because if the originals aren't carefully cared for we all lose, if they aren't known to exist or aren't available except to a very few, many of us lose. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, Babylon 5, Sheridan, InfectionThe same applies to natural disaster anywhere on the planet at one time or another. It will happen and it will take all that lovely copyright material with it and not care at all. Check with the Babylonians to see how much of their culture survived. Wanda ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] how museums can help costumers
Copyright may turn out not to be the wave of the future. I hope there is a better way found for all of us, Museums and private citizens. I fail to see any other mechanism than copyright (the control over replication and sale of the work) for creators and producers of works to get paid for the very large amounts of time and money they put into them. It is just not possible to do all this work free--or even for any cost reduction beyond a couple of dollars per item. Loss leaders and experiments to sell other things and services than the item being given away, don't count. I've been a self-publisher since 1993. In all this time, although I've seen tons of people on the net advising each other to rip off copyrighted works (including mine), and complaining about prices, and advancing entitlement arguments (often positively screaming about their entitlement), I have yet to see a single person send me a donation. (Admittedly I have asked for none and expect none.) Nor have I often seen the idea that creators of works deserve fair payment advanced by people who are not themselves creators of works or involved in their production in some way. As for Google, they do plan to charge the public for the works whose copyrights they ripped off, providing they get away with ripping them off in the first place. They didn't spend millions of dollars scanning millions of books out of altrusim. Judge Chin is still pondering the proposed Settlement, and it will probably be appealed for years whether he accepts or rejects it--though I hope he does. I must say, I find the attitude of both the public and of big businesses like Google, that they have a divine right to use my work and manipulate my finances in any and every way they see fit, so contemptuous, degrading, and hostile that I am seriously considering getting out of this business. Fran Lavolta Press www.lavoltapress.com ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
Re: [h-cost] how museums can help costumers
Judge Chin is still pondering the proposed Settlement, and it will probably be appealed for years whether he accepts or rejects it--though I hope he does. Reject it, I mean. You need to realize that when someone scans your work (after you have explicitly entered it a do not scan for your library project database Google put up when the suit was filed), asserts the right to distribute and sell it however they want, whether you agree to the Settlement or not (I opted out, but the Settlement explicitly says Google does not agree to refrain from selling works by copyright holders who opted out), destroying your other markets for it, you can basically kiss off most of your revenues. Of course, Google will make money off the seized works no matter what. Fran ___ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
