Assistant Director, Visual Resources Collection, University of Chicago
THATCamp Organizer
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek now presents 20 manuscripts from its voluminous Oriental collection in the form of an application for iPads and iPhones. The “Oriental books” are available free of charge in the Apple App Store.
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek also presents the application “Famous books – Treasures of the Bavarian State Library” for iPads and iPhones, which features 52 highlights of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek’s collections.
The Corpus Vitrearum Deutschland is part of the International Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA), which was founded to share the entire stock of medieval stained glass in museums in Europe, Canada and the United States. The CVMA German Picture Archive includes over 500 high quality photographs of stained glass, available to the public for teaching and research. Detail views of the stained glass include location information plotted on a Google Map. Website and associated search function available in German.
A recent modification to ARTstor’s policies now requires all users to log in before downloading images, whether on- or off-campus. The change was prompted by a need for more complete user statistics. From ARTstor:
This [log in] information – which includes the email that you use to register and a disciplinary affiliation – will help us better serve you and other ARTstor users: The information will allow us to build future collections that best meet users’ needs. We will also use the anonymized data to provide feedback to museums and other collection providers, which plays a very helpful role in making the case for their broadly sharing their collections to the educational community through ARTstor.
The VRC continues to recommend that all ARTstor users register before searching for images. This will ensure access to all of ARTstor’s features, including image download.
For instructions on registering for ARTstor, please view ARTstor’s registration tutorial. You must either be on-campus or accessing ARTstor through the library proxy. If registering with your Cnet email address, please do NOT use your Cnet password (for security reasons). For information about other ARTstor updates, including new image collections, please click here.
Please contact VRC staff with any questions.
The city’s landmarks commission will vote this week to decide if eight major Chicago parks–and the 26-mile boulevard system that connects them–deserves a spot on the National Register of Historic Places… If ultimately approved by the National Park Service, the designation would recognize the importance of the city’s park and boulevard system and open the door to the possibility of state and federal historic tax credits to assist the rehab of pre-World War II buildings along the thoroughfare.
Via WBEZ.
The Digital Images Collections Wiki hosted at Wellesley College contains links to image collections that are available for free online for educational or personal use. Links are organized by subject, and image quality varies by site (no images are actually hosted on the wiki). The images may not be approved for use in publication but could be used in the classroom.
For more information about fair use vs. copyright-free images, or if you have any questions, please contact the VRC.
ARTstor recently updated features for the Fall 2011 quarter:
Additionally, new image collections include:
Check the ARTstor blog’s release page for more new releases, or see their Collections page for a full collection list. If you need help making the most of these collections and features, please contact the VRC to schedule an ARTstor training session.
UPDATE: ARTstor has also changed their download policy so that users must be logged in to download images. To register for ARTstor, click here and then select “Register” at upper right. If you choose to use your Cnet email address, do NOT use your Cnet password (for security reasons).
Are you hungry for high quality, publishable images to use in your dissertation or manuscript? Trying to avoid expensive licensing fees? Not sure what images are in the public domain?
If so, consider the following resources for copyright-free or copyright-lenient images. Most image sites include both high and low resolution images, with high quality TIFFs available upon request. Please note that each resource/institution may have specific requirements for attribution or limits on print runs. When in doubt, contact the institution before using the images in your publication.
Do you know of additional resources that we should add? Contact us!
General Resources and Guides
Museum Image Resources
Image Resources by Subject
Illustration
Islamic
Medieval
Photography
Royalty-Free Images (One-time Fee)
A high-resolution, searchable, and zoomable copy of the Gough Map of Great Britain is now available online through the Linguistic Geographies project. The map may be searched by modern or medieval place name and browsed by place alphabetically.
The Gough Map is internationally-renowned as one of the earliest maps to show Britain in a geographically-recognizable form. Yet to date, questions remain of how the map was made, who made it, when and why… This website presents an interactive, searchable edition of the Gough Map, together with contextual material, a blog, and information about the project and the Language of Maps colloquium.
The website NSKYC updates every 5 minutes with the new average color of the NYC sky. (Washington D.C. is also available).
Contact the site’s creator, Mike Bodge, to add your city (must have access to webcam, Internet, and excellent view).
A recent article in the LA Times describes the threats faced by an ancient Afghan archaeological site, Mes Aynak. The threats include war, looting, and now bulldozing by a Chinese mining company searching for copper.
…a dozen archaeologists and 100 Afghan laborers are working like army ants to finish the dig. Many valuable relics were looted long ago, and the archaeologists won’t be able to save the ancient edifices from the mining company. But they can remove the statues, pottery and gold and silver coins still buried within the buildings.
“We don’t know exactly how much time we have to excavate the site. Sometimes the deadline is 14 months and sometimes it’s two years.”
Photographs of the excavation published online by the LA Times are available here.