Digitizing Initiatives
Digitizing initiatives
with revenue and profit aspects
(above: George Benjamin Luks, Houston
Street, 1907, oil on canvas mounted on masonite, 23.8 x 41.6 inches,
Saint Louis Art Museum. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
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- Google Books
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- Google Inc. collaborates with institutional libraries
to digitize large quantities of books via the Google
Books Library Project. The Google initiative to digitize the contents
on the New York Public Library, plus the California, Harvard, Michigan,
Oxford and Stanford university libraries, will result in a spectacular
improvement in the ability of scholars, students and teachers to find relevant
texts for further study.
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- Public domain books are available on an open access basis.
Copyrighted material is treated in one of three ways. Google negotiates
with cooperating publishers through its Google
Books Partner Program for "Limited Preview" of selected entire
pages, via search within the books by readers. For scanned books without
copyright permissions, "snippets" from pages are available. For
remaining books basic information is provided without ability to search
within the book. The snippets inform readers about the relevance of the
book to their subject of inquiry.
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- In June 2008 Google said about the service:
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- "For books that enter Book Search through the Library
Project, what you see depends on the book's copyright status. We respect
copyright law and the tremendous creative effort authors put into their
work. If the book is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright,
you can page through the entire book and even download it and read it offline.
But if the book is under copyright, and the publisher or author is not
part of the Partner Program, we only show basic information about the book,
similar to a card catalog, and, in some cases, a few snippets -- sentences
of your search terms in context..."
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- While few books on American art history are out of copyright,
those in the Books Library Project will be of benefit to students and scholars
alike. A Google Book Search conducted
March 24, 2008 located 82,000 pages from books with the words "American
art" and 7,760 pages from books with the phase "American art."
Many offer either "Limited Preview" or "snippet" features.
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- A Google
Book Search, on the publisher's name (e.g., inpublisher:"Hudson
Hills") and limiting the search to Limited Preview and full view books,
will indicate whether the publisher is participating in the Google
Books Partner Program offering Snippit View, Limited Preview or Full
Views.
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- Books with Snippit View, Limited Preview or Full Views
features are fully digitized. Google Books provides a keyword search box
in the pages describing individual books. Keyword search results show pages
in the books containing the keywords. For Limited Preview books, not all
keyword search results may be shown. For Full View books, full contents
of the books may be read online. Images, however, are suppressed in some
examples identified by TFAO.
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- A January
4, 2009 article in the New York Times titled "Google Hopes
to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books" said that "A settlement
in October with authors and publishers who had brought two copyright lawsuits
against Google will make it possible for users to read a far greater collection
of books, including many still under copyright protection." The settlement
allows for "...sales to consumers of digital access to copyrighted
books. Google will take 37 percent of this revenue, leaving 63 percent
for publishers and authors." The article reported that Google had
scanned seven million books to date, with about five million in copyright
but out of print.
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- Google Books and Art Museums
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- TFAO conducted in March 2008 through January 2009 a sample
survey of museums' activity in providing free online access of their exhibition
catalogues via Google Books. The survey, using Google Books as a research
source, also identified books published by the museums that relate to TFAO's
mission. For information about the survey please click
here. TFAO found that relatively few museums have yet entered into
arrangements with Google Books for online retrieval of book contents.
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- TFAO learned during the survey that the Hudson
River Museum is in the process of having its books listed in Google
Books, with some books scanned to date. A Google Book Search conducted
June 19, 2008 located three books recently been published by the Museum
online via Google Books with Full View. A Full View book may be read online
without charge in its entirety. Images of art objects were deleted in the
online Full View pages. The three catalogues are: Red
Grooms: In the Studio, By Bartholomew Bland. Published 2008. The
Hudson River Museum. Art / General. 32 pages. ISBN:0943651360; I
WANT Candy: The Sweet Stuff in American Art, By Bartholomew F.
Bland. Contributor Michael Botwinick. Published 2007. The Hudson River
Museum. Art / General. 50 pages. ISBN:0943651344; Got
Cow? Cattle in American Art, 1920-2000:, By Bartholomew F. Bland,
Hudson River Museum. Published 2006. The Hudson River Museum. Art / General.
50 pages. ISBN:0943651328. Published in conjunction with an exhibition
held at the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, N.Y., June 24-Sept. 10, 2006.
TFAO understands that the Hudson River Museum plans to continue working
with Google Books to publish online certain new catalogues plus selected
catalogues published on paper in prior years.
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- A March 24, 2008 publisher search in Google Books for
Chazen Museum of Art yielded 190 titles
with almost all of the books featuring "Limited Preview." Chazen
Museum of Art is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin.
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- Commercial Publishers
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- Commercial publishers such as Abbeville
Press, Harry N. Abrams and
Hudson Hills Press publish many
art books. In March 2008 TFAO found in the Abbeville Press web site 26
books with partially digitized contents excerpts including prefaces, prologues,
introductions, chapters, table of contents and other excerpts. Here is
an Abbeville book with the Introduction available online:
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- Southwestern Indian Jewelry,
By Dexter Cirillo. Photographs by Stephen Northup, Michael Monteaux. Contributor
Steven Northup, Michael Monteaux. Published 1992 by Abbeville Press. Abbeville
says: "Spectacular photographs of the breathtaking beautiful objects
and sensitive portraits of the artists combine with an insightful, informative
text to capture the spirit of this work and the vital cultures from which
it springs. This ground-breaking volume opens by surveying the vividly
colored necklaces, earrings, and pins made in shell and stone from prehistoric
times to the present, particularly in the Santo Domingo and Zuni pueblos.
The focus then shifts to the much-admired and avidly collected work in
silver -- often set with turquoise and other stones -- by Navajo, Hopi,
and Zuni artists. The book culminates in an exploration of striking contemporary
work in which many artists have adapted traditional approaches to create
original designs. A collector's guide offers invaluable advice as well
as an illustrated glossary of materials, techniques, objects, and designs.
A nationwide directory of sources concludes the book." (right: front
cover, Southwestern Indian Jewelry. Photo courtesy Google Books)
Note: the Introduction to this book may be read at the Abbeville
Press web site.
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- Click here for a list
of Abbeville Press titles.
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- A May 1, 2008 Google
Book Search check for Hudson Hill Press on the publisher's name (e.g.,
inpublisher:"Hudson Hills") and limiting the search to Limited
Preview and full view books indicated 557 titles, many of which relate
to American representational art.
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- University Presses
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- TFAO has conducted inquiries with university presses
noted for publication of art exhibition catalogues. Web searches indicate
that several presses have entered into arrangements with Amazon and/or
Google or are close to decisions on digitization participation. Examples
of university presses that have published American art books include those
from these institutions:
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- Columbia University (Google partner)
- Fordham University
Press (Google partner)
- Harvard University (Google partner)
- Oxford University (Google partner)
- Penn State (Google partner)
- Princeton University (Google partner)
- University
of Arizona
- University of California (Google partner)
- University of
Georgia (Google partner)
- University
of Illinois (Google partner)
- University of New
Mexico
- University of North
Carolina (Google partner)
- University of South
Carolina (Google partner)
- University
of Pennsylvania (Google partner)
- University of
Texas (Google partner)
- University
of Washington
- Yale University (Google partner)
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- When contacted in 2004, one large university press in
the Western US had submitted about 1/2 of its titles with Amazon and Google.
At that time the press has restricted digitization to text only and is
studying rights and reproduction issues relating to images. A representative
of the press explained that when books are sold online the authors still
receive a share of proceeds in the form of royalties, forming an incentive
for collaboration with the press. Copyright holders of images in books
usually do not have royalty arrangements and therefore have less alignment
of interests with publishers for digitization.
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- TFAO believes that university presses have a high propensity
to cooperate with search engines and online books sales organizations in
placing their books online for free retrieval of text in some manner.
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- Amazon.com
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- Amazon.com produces page images, conducts OCR scanning,
and makes available to registered users both text search and page image
display for a large segment of the books it sells ("millions of pages"),
on the premise that the results will enhance book sales. In a Wired.com
article written by Gary Wolf titled "The
Great Library of Amazonia" dated October 23, 2003, the Amazon.com
project is discussed in detail. The article states further that "[Lawrence]
Lessig, in partnership with Stanford University librarian Michael Keller,
will soon announce a free program to digitize any out-of-print book whose
copyright holder wants to make it available to the public."
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- TFAO surveyed a sample of 67 books containing page images
from Amazon.com's inventory in February, 2004 and found that 24 books (36%)
contained excerpts and 13 books (19%) contained the "search inside"
feature. Please click here for a partial
list of Amazon searchable American art titles.
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- Rotunda
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- The University of Virginia Press established the Electronic
Imprint in 2001 and its series of publications known as Rotunda.
The electronic publications website for the Press said that "Rotunda
was created for the publication of original digital scholarship along with
newly digitized critical and documentary editions in the humanities and
social sciences. The collection combines the originality, intellectual
rigor, and scholarly value of traditional peer-reviewed university press
publishing with thoughtful technological innovation designed for scholars
and students." Electronic Imprint said that digital scholarship
"content can never be captured in its entirety by a printed book,
no matter how long or heavily illustrated." A PDF file would not be
digital scholarship because its content is exactly convertible to a printed
book. On the other hand, digital scholarship would include texts with hyperlinks
to quotation sources, audio and video files. As of October 2004 Electronic
Imprint had not yet announced plans for publication of American art content.
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- As of October, 2012 TFAO could not yet find American
art content on the website.
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- Artist and dealer websites
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- Caio Fonseca
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- Caio Fonseca's website section
on books contains as
of 2013 essays from catalogues including Inventions: Recent Paintings
by Caio Fonseca, an exhibition held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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- Edan Milton Hughes
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- Edan Hughes published many biographical sketches online.
Hughes is the foremost author of dictionaries on early California artists.
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- A Research Bonanza
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- The online content from sources such as covered above
will be a boon to students and life long learners when conducting research.
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- During 2008 TFAO contacted leading American museums to
learn of their plans to either directly digitize scholarly material owned
in their exhibition catalogues or have commercial services such as Amazon
and Google digitize for them. TFAO will track the progress of selected
major presses in digitizing their titles. A prior survey was conducted
in 2004.
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- 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."
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(above: William Glackens, Bathers
At Play, Study #2, 1914, oil on canvas, 12.25 x 15.5 inches, Sotheby's.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
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Digitizing initiatives not intended
for profit
- For information on digitizing initiatives not
intended for profit please click here
Go to:
- The eBook future
- Related Non-Profit Organizations
- Methods and Costs
- Notes
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Return to Digital Libraries and Initiatives
*Tag for expired US copyright of object
image:
TFAO's Distinguished
Artists catalogue provides online
access to biographical information for artists associated with this state.
Also, Search Resource Library for online articles and
essays concerning both individual artists associated with this state's history
and the history of art centers and museums in this state. Resource Library
articles and essays devoted to individual artists and institutions are not
listed on this page.
Links to sources of information outside
of our web site are provided only as referrals for your further consideration.
Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained
in these and all other web sites. Information from linked sources may be
inaccurate or out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced
organizations. Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes
no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other
sites, nor exerts any editorial or other control over them. For more information
on evaluating web pages see TFAO's General
Resources section in Online
Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.
Search Resource Library
Copyright 2013 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
Copyright 2013 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.