Scholarly text from private sources

Scholarly Text from Private Sources

An emphasis of TFAO's Resource Library publication is making available to its online readers scholarly texts beneficial for the study of the history of representational art in the United States in all centuries of the nation's history and from all geographic regions and states. While the majority of texts published by Resource Library are accepted from institutional sources, topical articles and essays from individuals and other private sources are also published.

Texts with solid educational and historic value are welcomed from individual writers, artist organizations and commercial galleries. Texts from galleries are usually essays from exhibition catalogues. Resource Library publishes, however, no publicity articles concerning current and upcoming commercial gallery exhibitions or for group exhibitions of artist organizations at museums or art centers. Resource Library selectively publishes publicity articles concerning exhibitions of artist organizations' individual members at museums or art centers. Artist organizations include cooperatives, clubs and other membership societies.

Why is this publication valuable to the public?

Access

Many Americans who want to learn about our Nation's art live away from metropolitan areas. Rural libraries often hold few scholarly texts related to art. Resource Library readers from all corners of America -- and the world -- have access to texts from exhibition catalogues and other sources. As of June 23, 2008 1,051 catalogue essays and other texts written by hundreds of named authors have been published in Resource Library.

Resource Library's use of HTML word wrap feature allows for widths of lines of text to automatically adjust

to fit various screen sizes. Word wrap makes it possible for Resource Library pages to be easily read on all devices that connect to the Internet including computers and hand held devices. (right: the Apple iPhone, which contains a browser, is a recent example of a device that provides access to the full contents of TFAO's web site. Image courtesy Apple Computer)

100% of the content of texts in Resource Library is searchable both by external search engines and internally, sharply reducing the time needed to find relevant information.

Aid for the handicapped

Visual impaired individuals can easily increase the size of Resource Library texts they are reading on the screen. This benefit is possible by the way in which Resource Library publishes articles and essays.

Ease of quotation

Resource Library allows contents of articles and essays to be copied and pasted into offline documents in order to facilitate placement of quotations into texts being prepared by students and scholars.

Freedom from economic constraints

Since Resource Library does not bear the cost burden of printing and distributing articles and essays on paper, whole texts can be economically published online instead of condensations. Also, there is no charge to readers.

Information on authors

For each article or essay attributable to a named author, Resource Library welcomes a narrative biography of the author to enable readers to become familiar with the author's education and accomplishments. This knowledge helps readers judge the quality of the scholarship.

Offline reading convenience

From time to time, some individuals will prefer to print on paper texts for later reading. Other individuals find uncomfortable the reading of lengthy texts on a computer screen. For these reasons Resource Library makes possible the option of printing on paper its online contents.

Translation

One of the features of Resource Library's method of presentation is that every published page can be easily translated to a variety of languages through simple online instructions.

Why is this publication valuable to the copyright holder?

Increased visibility and stimulus for sales

Resource Library increases the visibility of copyright holders' texts, guides viewers to copyright owners' web sites and provides stimulus for additional sales -- all at no cost to the owners of the texts -- to a large audience. TFAO's website is the world's most visited site devoted to American art. Sources and source documents are thoroughly identified and credited. Complimentary links are provided to copyright holders' web sites and appropriate phone numbers are provided.

Texts are usually unaccompanied by images and their captions to encourage readers to purchase publications directly through the source's distribution channels. People who most want images accompanying texts are generally those seeking to purchase coffee table books and add them to their collections. Online texts without images, however, are very valuable to students and scholars conducting research -- and who are less likely to purchase books.

To stimulate sales, many university presses and commercial publishers including Abbeville have made available on their web sites online essays from art-related titles. In addition, numerous publishers have cooperated with Amazon and Google Books to allow online access to texts in their books. In the case of art books, often these texts are Introductions.

Michael Lesk, a professor at Rutgers University, provides related insight into consumer purchasing behavior. He says: "The National Academy Press has, for a few years, been putting all their new books on the Web for free access, and providing the complete text of each book. To the surprise of many, the result has been an increase in their print sales. Similarly the Brookings Institute has put 100 of its books online free, and the paper sales of those books have doubled. This result is perhaps similar to the experience of record companies, which found years ago that having their records played free on the radio increased disk sales."

Please see these Resource Library texts for examples:

William Aiken Walker: in Florida; essay by Timothy A. Eaton (2/14/05)

Martin Johnson Heade: The Enigmatic Self; essay by Barbara Novak (2/14/05)

No charges to sources

Resource Library does not charge for publication of articles and essays. Conversely, no payment is made to copyright owners for published texts. Choice of content is not influenced by gifts or sponsorships. Also, Resource Library does not accept advertising.

Protection of copyright

Texts are usually republished from paper-printed exhibition catalogues and gallery brochures. Approval is given by the owner of a text for one-time republishing -- with no dilution of the owner's copyright. Resource Library dissuades individuals from copyright infringement and plagiarism in its User Agreement page. TFAO encourages students to thoroughly learn about plagiarism and encourages teachers to explain the meaning of plagiarism, how it may occur, the harm it causes and the legal penalties for its practice. TFAO discusses plagiarism and copyright infringement in the General Resources section of its Resources for Collectors, Life Long Learners, Students and Teachers of Art History.

Protection from unauthorized editing and posting

Unlike Wikipedia and similar web sites, texts published in Resource Library cannot be edited or directly posted by the public. To provide oversight of source authenticity, TFAO's director has personally approved all content for publication since Resource Library's inception. Content provided by a named author is never altered without permission of the author. For further information please see errors and omissions, acquisition and deselection of content for the TFAO Digital Library and digitizing initiatives.

Other texts

Individuals are invited to submit by email information on artists mentioned in previously published Resource Library articles. This information may be intended to enhance or correct previously published information. Accepted text will be placed after the end of the article within a new editor's note. The source of the new information will be given credit for the submission. The name of the source will be accompanied by contact information such as a postal address, email address or phone number. For further information please see errors and omissions.

Next steps

For next steps, please see information on guidelines for submitting materials. Also please see Resource Library's complete content presentation guidelines.

Additional options

Resource Library also suggests that private sources of texts consider:

making available on their websites downloads of scholarly texts from gallery guides, brochures and catalogues.
digitizing initiatives intended for profit as described here.

Go to:

Search Resource Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.