The TFAO Digital Library: Acquisition and deselection of content

The TFAO Digital Library

Acquisition of content

Through its publication Resource Library, TFAO converts paper-printed documents to digital format so that the digitally captured information may be stored by TFAO-dl and accessed freely through the Web. TFAO seeks to provide paper-converted content that either is relatively difficult to access from original publishers (often museums) in its paper-printed state or is not readily available through physical libraries. For more information on TFAO's conversion program and others see Digitizing Initiatives and TFAO's Special Projects section. Resource Library also receives texts and images in digital format from museums and sources concerning exhibitions and from other sources related to various topics.

TFAO offers -- without charge -- authors, publishers and other copyright owners a means to serve the public good while still realizing the commercial value of their assets. Published authors are named and their biographies provided whenever possible so that readers may gauge the quality of the texts.

Resource Library always identifies the sources of published materials and directs readers how to contact the sources, as described in its content presentation guidelines. To provide oversight of source authenticity, TFAO's director has approved all content for publication since Resource Library's inception.

Protection of intellectual property rights is of vital concern to private owners of copyrights. Copyright owners who submit materials to Resource Library and grant permission for digitization and free public access to their copyrighted intellectual property -- primarily in the form of texts and images -- seek assurance that the materials will available for the intended purpose and not be commercially used by TFAO. TFAO, as a non-profit charitable corporation, provides a channel for free public access on a perpetual basis yet allows copyright holders undiminished rights to realize the economic value of their intellectual property during the period of copyright protection and beyond. TFAO's Resource Library dissuades individuals from copyright infringement and plagiarism in its User Agreement page and encourages students to thoroughly learn about plagiarism. TFAO encourage teachers to explain the meaning of plagiarism, how it may occur, the harm it causes and the legal penalties for its practice. TFAO covers plagiarism and copyright infringement in the General Resources section of its Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.

Obtaining permissions for digitization of copyrighted texts is often difficult and time consuming. A thoughtful report by Denise Troll Covey titled Acquiring Copyright Permission to Digitize and Provide Open Access to Books, published by the Digital Library Federation, documents a project that studied the procedures, costs and success rates for groups of researchers seeking permissions from publishers to digitize in-copyright texts. Figure 5 related to one of the studies covered in the report contains an interesting chart that displays response and success rates for various types of publishers including museums, scholarly associations, university presses and commercial publishers. The conclusion of a random sample feasibility study was:

The random sample feasibility study revealed that it is indeed possible to secure permission to digitize and provide open access to books, but the work is tedious and often comes to naught. We learned that even determining the copyright status of a book can be difficult and time-consuming. When we conducted the study, we had a fledgling understanding of U.S. copyright law, but knew very little about foreign copyright law. When in doubt, we assumed that a work was copyright protected and sought permission. In the course of the study, we mistakenly requested permission for four titles that were no longer copyright protected. One publisher denied permission to digitize and provide Web access to three of these titles. Whether this means that the publisher did not know the copyright status of the books, or whether they believed their permission was required regardless of the copyright status of the books is unknown. The feasibility study also demonstrated that identifying and locating current copyright owners, particularly of older books, is a difficult, time-consuming, hit-or-miss, sometimes futile process. We agreed that future studies would track the transaction costs.

Other studies covered in Covey's report include graphs indicating approval rates and transaction costs relating to the work.

Deselection of content

Deselection of content from the collection is usually confined to removal of texts or images acquired in good faith and later found to be published by TFAO without approval of copyright holders. Because of TFAO's procedures to obtain approvals from copyright holders, this is a rare occurrence. In other instances material may be removed when found to contain egregious errors. For more information please see the Errors and omissions page within the Resource Library web site. Resource Library is a publication of TFAO.

Alternate online models

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is The biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. It is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Wikipedia does not list a page author because there may be many collaborative authors. Any reader can edit an article, which has led to degradation of content in some cases. Regarding acquisition of content, Wikipedia says:

Visitors do not need specialized qualifications to contribute, since their primary role is to write articles that cover existing knowledge; this means that people of all ages and cultural and social backgrounds can write Wikipedia articles. With rare exceptions, articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page link. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within Wikipedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. For example, if you add information to an article, be sure to include your references, as unreferenced facts are subject to removal.

There is no need to worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, and Wikipedia's software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.

Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles more frequently contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation that has been recently added and not yet removed (see Researching with Wikipedia for more details). However, unlike a paper reference source, Wikipedia is continually updated, with the creation or updating of articles on topical events within seconds, minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.

Knol

Knol is a venture, in test form as of December 2007, by Google. It provides free content on a non-exclusive basis, names of authors and carries advertisements so that the authors may monetize their submissions. Readers are not able to change authored Knols, but are able to rate a Knol or write a review of it. Knols also include references and links to additional information. A Knol is like a blog but more structured. Click here for an example.

In a September 13, 2007 blog, Udi Manber of Google said:

Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.

The Public Library of Science (PLoS)

The Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit scientific publishing venture headquartered in San Francisco, CA. This model contemplates the creation of specialty journals with free access. PLoS charges "...authors a fair price that reflects the actual cost of publication. However, the ability of authors to pay publication charges will never be a consideration in the decision whether to publish."

rev. 12/17/07

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Individual pages in this study will be amended as TFAO adds content, corrects errors and reorganizes sections for improved readability. Refreshing or reloading pages enables readers to view the latest updates.

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 and in employing referenced consultants or vendors. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations. Although Traditional Fine Art Organization, Inc. 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 those other sites. For more information on evaluating web pages see Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc.'s General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.