http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/2011/09/the-copyright-revolution-at-us-art-museums/ comments the decision by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum and various entities at Yale University to make high-resolution images of art from their collections available for anyone to use, for any purpose, copyright-free.

Thanks to Concord.

http://www.digitalculture.org/hacking-the-academy/

This volume was assembled and edited by Dan Cohen and Tom Scheinfeldt from the best of over 300 submissions received during a spirited week when the two editors actively solicited ideas for how the academy could be beneficially reformed using digital media and technology.

The Authors Guild, the Australian Society of Authors,
the Quebec Writers Union, and eight individual authors have filed
a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court against
HathiTrust, the University of Michigan, the University of
California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, and
Cornell University. Plaintiff authors include children's book
author and illustrator Pat Cummings, novelists Angelo Loukakis,
Roxana Robinson, Daniele Simpson, and Fay Weldon, poet Andre Roy,
Columbia University professor and Shakespeare scholar James
Shapiro, and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning
biographer T.J. Stiles.

The universities obtained from Google unauthorized scans of an
estimated 7 million copyright-protected books, the rights to
which are held by authors in dozens of countries. The
universities have pooled the unauthorized files in a repository
organized by the University of Michigan called HathiTrust.

Via liblicense

http://blog.authorsguild.org/2011/09/12/authors-guild-australian-society-of-authors-quebec-writers-union-sue-five-u-s-universities/

See also
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/authors-guild-sues-hathitrust-5-universities-over-digitized-books/36178

http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=hathitrust

Update:
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/158962910/

Keeper Of The Mountains Trailer from Allison Otto on Vimeo.

In a post-World War II era during which few women traveled and lived independently, young journalist Elizabeth Hawley decided to settle alone in 1960 in Kathmandu. Carving out a niche for herself as the foremost Himalayan mountaineering historian in the world, Hawley, now 87, has chronicled roughly 80,000 ascents in the Himalaya, including those on Everest.

A legacy keeper with her own legacy, Hawley's reports and interviews are so respected and thorough that mountaineers have dubbed her interrogations an expedition's “second summit,” and they consider her archives to be crucial to providing insight into the history of mountaineering and for maintaining integrity and accuracy in the mountaineering world.

But now Miss Hawley and her records face an uncertain future: Miss Hawley is pondering retirement but hasn’t groomed a successor. Since the archives aren’t a revenue-generating venture, how they will be maintained—and by whom—remains in doubt.

This is the story of an independent woman and her archives, of a self-professed “city girl” who played a key role in the Golden Age of Himalayan Mountaineering, who shared deep friendships with everyone from Sir Edmund Hillary to Nepalese royalty, and who witnessed firsthand mountaineering’s transformation from a fringe pursuit to a big-business obsession and the impact it had upon Nepal.

Special thanks to:

Lisa Choegyal and Michael and Meg Leonard for use of the still photographs
AND
Serac Adventure Films for additional footage

Seven cubic feet
Enticing, what mysteries!
Wooden cart awaits...
by Kate Mollan

Marg’ret, don’t be cross:
archives now proliferate
ike lakeside bunnies
by Ann Heinrichs

Hey, handsome stranger
Saw your pic in the archives
Too bad you’re dead now
by Rebecca Goldman

Link

".... Abstract
As keepers of recorded and artifactual history, archival repositories provide communities with the raw materials to support collective memory and create an effective “sense of place.” Part of this requires exposing the underlying geographical locations whose history is documented by archival records. But traditional archival principles of arrangement and description primarily emphasize provenance, respect des fonds, and temporal organization rather than the spatial aspects of records. Internet-based GIS tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth offer opportunities for archives to present records in new and exciting ways, and can help better connect archives to the communities they s ....
....Conclusion
Just as in other professions, digital technologies are rapidly permeating every aspect of the archival field. To some degree, technology simply extends activities that archivists have always undertaken — allowing them, for example, to make “flat” finding aids available online or to answer reference queries by e–mail. But to truly take advantage of new technologies, archivists must consider the implications new capabilities and weigh the changing expectations of users.

The online availability of archival collections means that they are no longer the exclusive domain of specialists who can spend days poring over finding aids. Online archives allow the general public to interact with history in new ways, and can attract nontraditional users to existing collections. To serve these new users, archivists must help them discover the real connections between the records and their own lives. Highlighting the places documented by their records is one particularly effective way of demonstrating this relevance. David Glassberg (1998) has observed that cultural resource managers “...can help residents and visitors alike see what ordinarily cannot be seen: both the memories attached to places and the larger social and economic processes that shaped how the places were made.” I would argue that this assertion is as true for those charged with historical records as with historical sites. Web 2.0 GIS tools like Google Maps are an accessible way for archivists to better present the spatial aspects of their collections, making it easier for communities of users to discover and utilize records of a place in new and different ways. These developments point toward a future where archival users can browse historical documentation as easily as they can seek out a new apartment."
Library Student Journal,
June 2010

Memory of a Nation from Lightwell on Vimeo.

Visitors to the Memory of a Nation exhibition at the National Archives of Australia can view a range of documents relating to Australia's past. The Archives' collection contains many records on paper such as war records, immigration certificates, photographs and drawings, as well as film footage and physical objects.

Visitors can use the multitouch interactive program to browse a range of documents and zoom in to details. The program lets visitors handle a digital version of the paper artefact without any concern for object conservation. Thematic links between records encourage exploration by visitors.

The 'show everything' interface was developed in conjunction with Dr Mitchell Whitelaw from the University of Canberra. Exhibition Design by Freeman Ryan Design.

http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com/2011/09/everything-we-think-can-in-principle-be.html

This is just to say that if we think keeping our scholarly work primarily out of public sight [except for the occasional conference presentation] until its penultimate moment of publication in a conventional venue such as the academic journal or book, at which point quite a few years of our lives [mainly spent in the solitude of studies and libraries or other semi-private spaces where we could manage a foothold] may have been devoted to that work whose "arrival" in print may even occur long after we have moved on to other projects, then we risk working too much in the dark, apart from the world which has bequeathed to us our objects and methods of study and reflection [I might also add here that this traditional way of doing things also keeps our work sequestered within the academy, and does not allow us to reach a more broadly public audience, which, in my mind, is a real perversion of the term "humanities"]. We also do our work largely apart from the very peers whom we hope will welcome and even love it when it is "finished." [...]

I am also trying to say: we need to learn better how to live in the scholarly NOW, and blogs have certainly increased the opportunities for doing that. It takes some extra work, of course, to spend part of each day reading and commenting on blogs and maybe also contributing substantive posts to a weblog now and again, but the payoff is that the small burst of conversation that might occur in the last thirty minutes of a conference session has now been extended beyond the conference itself, maybe even for months on end. With traditional academic publishing, one might wait years, from the conception of a work to its completion and then publication in a traditional print venue, before one "hears" or "sees" any kind of reaction to one's work, and there might be no reaction at all, at least, not one that is palpably articulated, whether in a review or an email.

Obituary for Michael Stern Hart

Michael Stern Hart was born in Tacoma, Washington on March 8, 1947. He died on September 6, 2011 in his home in Urbana, Illinois, at the age of 64. His is survived by his mother, Alice, and brother, Bennett. Michael was an Eagle Scout (Urbana Troop 6 and Explorer Post 12), and served in the Army in Korea during the Vietnam era.

Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. He often told this story of how he had the idea for eBooks. He had been granted access to significant computing power at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On July 4 1971, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he decided to type the text into a computer, and to transmit it to other users on the computer network. From this beginning, the digitization and distribution of literature was to be Hart's life's work, spanning over 40 years.

Hart was an ardent technologist and futurist. A lifetime tinkerer, he acquired hands-on expertise with the technologies of the day: radio, hi-fi stereo, video equipment, and of course computers. He constantly looked into the future, to anticipate technological advances. One of his favorite speculations was that someday, everyone would be able to have their own copy of the Project Gutenberg collection or whatever subset desired. This vision came true, thanks to the advent of large inexpensive computer disk drives, and to the ubiquity of portable mobile devices, such as cell phones.

Hart also predicted the enhancement of automatic translation, which would provide all of the world's literature in over a hundred languages. While this goal has not yet been reached, by the time of his death Project Gutenberg hosted eBooks in 60 different languages, and was frequently highlighted as one of the best Internet-based resources.

A lifetime intellectual, Hart was inspired by his parents, both professors at the University of Illinois, to seek truth and to question authority. One of his favorite recent quotes, credited to George Bernard Shaw, is characteristic of his approach to life:

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people."
Michael prided himself on being unreasonable, and only in the later years of life did he mellow sufficiently to occasionally refrain from debate. Yet, his passion for life, and all the things in it, never abated.

Frugal to a fault, Michael glided through life with many possessions and friends, but very few expenses. He used home remedies rather than seeing doctors. He fixed his own house and car. He built many computers, stereos, and other gear, often from discarded components.

Michael S. Hart left a major mark on the world. The invention of eBooks was not simply a technological innovation or precursor to the modern information environment. A more correct understanding is that eBooks are an efficient and effective way of unlimited free distribution of literature. Access to eBooks can thus provide opportunity for increased literacy. Literacy, and the ideas contained in literature, creates opportunity.

In July 2011, Michael wrote these words, which summarize his goals and his lasting legacy: “One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as we want other than air. Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job." He had this advice for those seeking to make literature available to all people, especially children:

"Learning is its own reward. Nothing I can
say is better than that."
Michael is remembered as a dear friend, who sacrificed personal luxury to fight for literacy, and for preservation of public domain rights and resources, towards the greater good.

This obituary is granted to the public domain by its author, Dr. Gregory B. Newby.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart

In November 2010, a reception and exhibition was held at the Senedd to celebrate the transfer of an important collection of 14,000 rare books from the Cardiff Public Library to Special Collections and Archives, enabled with funding from the Welsh Assembly Government and HEFCW, and the support of Cardiff Council. The collection includes rare examples of early books or incunabula printed before 1500; many early Bibles dating from 1540; early atlases including a world map published in 1492, a few months before Columbus reached America; a comprehensive set of seventeenth century Restoration plays; seventeenth century copies of Shakespeare's works and many examples of fine printing from Victorian publishers.

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/libraries/scolar/digital/rarebooks.html

On the Causa Cardiff see
http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=cardiff