The International Center for Medieval Art is in the early testing phase of collecting and sharing personal images of medieval art and architecture, using Flickr:
http://medievalart.org/?page_id=185
I haven't checked in with this project for some time, so I don't know whether it has been successful or not...
2010/10/28 Dot Porter dot.porter@gmail.com:
Thanks to Fred, and to Neven for following up on his point.
I would love to see an open repository of scholar-created images. I don't think it would require very much - an agreed-upon Flickr tag would do it, wouldn't it? Of course this would require that images be uploaded into Flickr, and there may be some with reservations about that. But there is something to be said for offloading storage costs onto someone else (and we would get the additional benefit of being part of a much larger digital repository, think of the possibilities for cross-searching and for finding other manuscripts that aren't part of "our" collection). I do say that as someone who has not used Flickr very much and perhaps this is obvious. I would love to hear from others on the list with more experience - how would Flickr work for an intiative such as this, and would it really be as simple as I think it would be (the social aspect Fred mentions - that would be, getting everyone to use the same tag - is a somewhat different matter).
I should also say, belatedly, that I'm immensely grateful for the responses to my query and for the great discussion coming out of those responses.
Thanks,
Dot
2010/10/28 Neven Jovanović neven.jovanovic@ffzg.hr:
Fred Gibbs touched an important topic:
"how to create and utilize an open access image repository (perhaps more of a social challenge than a technical one) rather than the logistics of producing images in the first place. Though by no means do I mean to minimize the challenges of digitization. Indeed, the discussion of how to meet the threshold of utility in image creation is a crucial first step. But a larger (and somewhat utopian) vision of manuscript image access, even with a latitude of image quality, is perhaps worth bearing in mind as best practices are worked out."
One question is: what do we need the images for? Another question is: are we allowed to share the images?
Fred's vision is not only beautiful, it is something that comes naturally to researchers. The libraries, however, have different priorities, especially as regards sharing of their material (or images thereof). To put manuscript images in a repository, I have to ask for permission the library or the archive whose manuscript I photographed; at this point the institutions usually get uncomfortable, for all kinds of reasons; and if I do something without permission, I'll be in trouble next time I have to visit that place. Yes, I know that a public institution *should* allow the public to make its treasures public, but I also know that it's, well, complicated.
We are discussing open data here. The data should be open, and we could all do much, much more with a shared repository for our manuscript images. But such a repository would at the moment have to function in a guerilla way (I know of such repositories for Southern Slavic history, for example; a nice approach is also http://www.flickr.com/photos/uofglibrary/, for printed matter).
What do others think? Would such a repository be possible? Does it exist somewhere outside of institutional digitizing projects?
Yours,
Neven
Zagreb, Hrvatska / Croatia
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-- *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Dot Porter (MA, MSLS) Digital Medievalist, Digital Librarian Email: dot.porter@gmail.com *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Digital Medievalist -- http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/ Journal: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal/ Journal Editors: editors _AT_ digitalmedievalist.org News: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/news/ Wiki: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/wiki/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/digitalmedieval Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gidI320313760 Discussion list: dm-l@uleth.ca Change list options: http://listserv.uleth.ca/mailman/listinfo/dm-l