The argument for Ancestry is maybe slightly stronger, I reckon, in that
often they're digitizing collections that are smaller and unlikely to
have much funding (e.g. local government areas and smaller, even single
churches sometimes). So it sort of makes sense to pay for that (because
the organisations that own the collections can't do it).
The SLNSW, on the other hand, is a single large institution and already
has the skills and means to digitize. It's just a matter of money?
Not that I know much about any of this :-) but the approach of the
Australian War Memorial seems pretty good: get people who want
particular items to pay for them to be digitized, and then make the
digital files available for free to everyone else. That's the sort of
non-commercial ethos that would be great to see within any
publicly-funded institution. :)
—Sam
On 09/04/16 09:07, Kerry Raymond wrote:
I’m with Andrew, it’s a both a blessing and a curse. I’ve seen the
same thing happen in family history. Once the records were there in
physical form in a distant part of the world (result: no access for
most people); then Ancestry came along and offered to digitise them
and sell subscriptions to access the data (result: access for anyone
willing/able to pay). For me, I find the Ancestry subscription cost
reasonable for what I get access to (I use it for Wikipedia research
as well as family history) but not everyone thinks it’s affordable.
So, I think the real question with SLNSW is “at what price will it
become accessible?”.
When the time is right, we should try to negotiate for the Wikipedia
Library program to get access to some subscriptions (assuming that’s
the model chosen – could be pay-per-view).
Kerry
*From:*Wikimediaau-l
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of
*Robert Myers
*Sent:* Friday, 8 April 2016 1:20 PM
*To:* Australian Wikimedians mailing list
<[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [Wikimediaau-l] NSW State Library
More of a concern, IMO
Sent from my iPhone
On 8 Apr 2016, at 12:47 PM, Andrew Owens <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi all,
Just noticed an article about the NSW State Library that's either
an opportunity or a concern...
http://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-state-library-to-turn-3bn-collection-over-to-private-sector-417974
kindest regards
Andrew
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