Scholarly Texts from Institutions

Scholarly Texts from Institutions

An emphasis of Traditional Fine Arts Organization's Resource Library publication is making available to its online readers scholarly texts beneficial for the study of representational art in the United States covering numerous topics and artists throughout the nation's history. For both a count of articles and essays by named authors published online in Resource Library and a list of authors of those texts please click here.

Why is this publication valuable to the public?

Comprehensive source

Resource Library is the most comprehensive online source of information on American representational art. It is of value to scholars, teachers, students, individuals Shaping an Art Collection and the general public worldwide.

Access

Few libraries hold numerous scholarly texts related to American art. Resource Library readers from all corners of America -- and the world -- have access to extensive texts and images provided by many institutional and private sources.

Resource Library's "word-wrap" method of online content presentation allows widths of lines of text to automatically adjust to fit all screen

sizes. Pages to be easily read on all devices that connect to the Internet including hand-held devices such as the iPhone and iPad. (left and right: the Apple iPhone and iPad, which contain Web browsers, are recent example of devices that provides access to the full contents of TFAO's web site. Images courtesy Apple Computer)

All content 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.

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 100-150 word narrative biography of the author to enable readers to become familiar with the author's education and accomplishments. This knowledge helps readers judge scholarship quality and provides stimulation for seeking out more of an author's works.

Information on catalogues

Where applicable, accompanying each essay Resource Library welcomes a 100-150 word description of the catalogue containing the essay, a photo of the front cover of the catalogue, plus guidance to readers on where to purchase the catalogue.

Offline reading convenience

Some individuals 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 online contents on paper.

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.

Other Issues

Please see more on issues regarding scholarly texts being addressed by Resource Library

Why is this publication valuable to the copyright holder?

Fulfillment of Mission

Texts from museums published online in Resource Library advance the fulfillment of the education element of mission statements.

Increased visibility and stimulus for sales

TFAO's Web site is among the world's most visited sites devoted to American art. Resource Library increases visibility of copyright holders' texts, guides viewers to copyright owners' web sites and provides stimulus for physical site visitation plus additional catalogue sales -- at no cost to the owners of the texts -- to a large audience. 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 related captions to encourage readers to purchase publications from the institution's store and other 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.[1]

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 texts published online by Resource Library as examples:

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.

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 institutions consider:

making available on their Web sites downloads of scholarly texts from gallery guides, brochures and catalogues.
TFAO's assistance program for conversion of analog text to digital files and online publication of scholarly texts.
other digitizing initiatives not intended for profit as described here.
digitizing initiatives with revenue and profit aspects as described here.

Note:

1. Although image captions are usually not included, captions for images included in paper-printed books may be appended to an essay at the request of the copyright holder, following a mutually agreed upon methodology. Also, as stated in Resource Library's Content Presentation Guidelines "In order to preserve the integrity of the original essay text, figure or catalogue image number references within the essay text are preserved. Examples are '...Western paintings (Cat. No. 4)' and '...classes at the Ferrer Center (figs. 23-27)'".

If an institution is in a position to grant to Resource Library permission for inclusion of agreed upon images of art objects with online texts, and wishes this done, the request may be accommodated. Since some images in the possession of an institution may be held for the sole purpose of providing publicity for an exhibition or other restricted use, extra caution is in order to protect the usage licenses granted by copyright holders of images.

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