Archive in action - A model for research and study within a multilayered environment from Anne Mette W. Nielsen on Vimeo.

Beginning in the Fall of 2008 The Maslow Collection relocated to Marywood University where it began to be utilized as a learning laboratory, providing fieldwork experiences, internships and opportunities in curatorial and
exhibition studies for Marywood students through the Arts Administration program. The Collection also enables faculty in art history and studio arts to request individual works for presentation and student discussion in the
Maslow Study Gallery. In addition, the Curatorial Studies Archives is available for research, and is incorporated into the exhibition installations as case material for building a stronger context for the study of the works and artists in the exhibition. While at Marywood The Maslow Collection also continue to be a major resource to the larger community, loaning works to regional and national exhibitions, as well as being available for professional research and study. About the collection: In addition to prints by noted artists Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauchenberg, The Maslow Collection now includes over 500 works from 178 artists, most of whom are represented by four or more works, with a number of artists having as many as 15 works
in various media included in The Maslow Collection. The Collection is curated by art historian Robert Schweitzer. Over the past 10 years Robert Schweitzer has also collected and organized the materials in the Curatorial
Studies Archives and created the web site that provides for the cross-referenced search tool for the entire collection:
http://themaslowcollection.org

http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/04/04/an-african-nation-joins-world-digital-library/

The World Digital Library has officially been online for about one year. At launch, the database contained 1140 entries. 50 weeks later the database is home to 1257 entries. Why has the database grown by only 117 entries in one year? Why aren’t members contributing and/or the material that has been contributed making it online?

Good question!

The Internet Archive is pleased to announce an important manuscript, Homiliary on Gospels from Easter to first Sunday of Advent, as the 2,000,000th free digital text. Internet Archive has been scanning books and making them available for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public for free on archive.org since 2005.

“This 1,000 year old book which has only been seen by a select few people, can, with the technology of today, be shared with millions tomorrow," said Robert Miller, Director of Books of the Internet Archive. "Selecting this title for the 2 millionth text is a fitting tribute to the team of scanners who have been carefully working for the past 5 years.”

The Homiliary manuscript was copied on parchment by at least three different scribes at the important medieval Abbey of St. Martin in Tours less than 100 years after having been composed by Heiric of Auxerre and is the oldest known copy of Heiric’s original text.

“Handwritten in Latin by a number of scribes in a script inspired by the court of Charlemagne, this rare and beautiful treasure from the first millennium of Christianity, is one of the gems in the renowned collection of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. The Institute is dedicated to transmitting the inheritance of the Middle Ages to new generations; to deepening our understanding of the life and ideals of Western culture in the time of its first youth," said Jonathan Bengtson, Director of Library and Archives, University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto & Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.

http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=300273
http://www.archive.org/details/homiliaryongospe00heir

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd3433.pdf

Lack of access prevents many from benefiting from educational resources. Digital technologies now enable educational resources, such as books, to be openly available to those with access to the Internet. This study examined the financial viability of a religious publisher‘s putting free digital versions of eight of its books on the Internet. The total cost of putting these books online was $940.00. Over a 10-week period these books were downloaded 102,256 times and print sales of these books increased 26%. Comparisons with historical book sales and sales of comparable titles suggest a positive but modest connection between this increase and the online availability of the free books. This dissertation may be downloaded for free at http://etd.byu.edu.

More on this topic see:
http://delicious.com/Klausgraf/monograph_open_access

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/dol/images/examples/haiti/0001.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/world/americas/01document.html

A Canadian graduate student at Duke University, Julia Gaffield, has unearthed from the British National Archives the first known, government-issued version of Haiti’s founding document [in 1804].

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/21473

The Netherlands government has launched Rijksoverheid.nl, a new website that all Dutch ministries will migrate to (English; other links in this post are Dutch).
Creative Commons Netherlands notes that the site’s copyright policy signals a seriousness about open sharing of public sector information — its default is to remove all copyright restrictions with the CC0 public domain waiver.
Rijksoverheid.nl not only signals a true commitment to openness but also sets a strong example for other governments. Congratulations!

I agree!