museumsandtheweb.com - publishing

The Transition to Online Scholarly Catalogues

nhoneysett — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:05:09 +0000

MW2011

Nik Honeysett, J. Paul Getty Museum, USA

http://www.getty.edu

Abstract

The scholarly catalogue has long been a critical part of a museum's mission, providing authoritative information about collection objects for scholars, students, and the general public. Often based on years of painstaking research and richly illustrated, print catalogues form one of the building blocks of art history. The catalogue's print form, however, is arguably the very component that prevents it from realizing even greater potential. High cost and relatively small print runs limit its accessibility, and printed books cannot easily change to reflect new acquisitions or new scholarly knowledge. While the online environment holds much promise for making collection catalogues more current, interactive, and widely available, museums still face significant financial and organizational challenges in making the transition online. This paper describes the challenges and successes of nine institutions as they step through a project to deliver a scholarly catalogue to their online environment.

Keywords: online scholarly catalogues, electronic publishing, publishing, museum catalogues

Program Item Reference:

The Transition to Online Scholarly Catalogues

E-Books for Museums: How to Make Them, and Why You Should

galbers — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 05:17:14 +0000

MW2011

Keywords:

E-Books

Keywords:

publishing

Keywords:

Reading

Keywords:

EPUB

Keywords:

DIY

Keywords:

How-to

Abstract:

Holding decades worth of exhibition catalogs, member journals, symposium papers, and historical records, museums go beyond being repositories of objects – they are also repositories of knowledge about objects and their related fields. Accessible, flexible, and exploding in popularity, e-books offer museums the opportunity to use this readymade trove of material to develop a deeper connection with visitors, increase audience exposure through new channels, and even generate new revenue. Following an overview of the e-book industry, and a look at the few approaches being explored in museums today, we'll dive into e-books by creating one from start to finish in this half-day workshop.

In three and a half hours – using readily accessible tools and a DIY spirit—we'll identify the content for publication, digitize the text, format it, create a cover, finalize and check the files and send it out for distribution. Along the way we will discuss the pros and mostly cons of digital rights management; the ins and outs of all the major e-book sales channels; best practices for format specification and e-book reader rights; and the possibilities for where this content, once digitized, might go next, including print-on-demand editions, online databases, mobile in-museum downloads, and more.

For both the workshop and the successful implementation of e-book programs in the future, no programming experience is necessary to get started. We will start with the basics, focusing on the industry-dominant EPUB format, which is an open specification built largely with web-friendly HTML and CSS that can be as simple or as rich you’d like. Along with nuts and bolts knowledge and a solid introduction to the e-book field at large, participants will walk away with the skills necessary to produce and distribute high-quality industry-standard e-books on their own, for next to nothing, in less than a day.

Type:

Workshop - full or half day

eBooks for Museums

Authors:

Greg Albers

Mulltimedia licensing contracts: uses and rights

jtrant — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:06:28 +0000

Steiner, C. (1993). Mulltimedia licensing contracts: uses and rights. Museums and Interactive Multimedia: Selected papers from the second International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums.