Attribution of Internet Archive scans

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steltz
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Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by steltz »

I've been following some discussion of the DIAMM issues via links that our university librarian is sending me, and I'm picking up that, while there is not a global aggression against IMSLP, some librarians are expressing concern that we are picking up scans from Internet Archive, but Internet Archive is not actually the scanner -- they are getting their scans from elsewhere. Yet the original scanner is not being credited. These libraries would like to be credited for their work. These libraries support the public domain, and support globalization of resources. They just want the names of their libraries as the scanners.

I think it's a real concern and a fair request. Is there anything we can do about this?
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by cypressdome »

The templates IArchS and IArch that are used in the scanner field for items originating from the Internet Archive have two options that can be used. One option will cause the scanner link to take you directly to the item on the Internet Archive and the other will replace the text "Internet Archive" with whatever the user wants--usually the institution from which the document originated. Making use of those options is entirely up to the user submitting the score.
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by steltz »

Is there a way for us to require, or at least alert people to choose, the manual option to enter the library information, or is this going to have to be done manually by the IMSLP librarians?
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by imslp »

While I'm very sympathetic to this concern of the libraries, I don't think we should be spending much of our efforts tracking down sources - there are just too many other things to do. If libraries submit items directly to IMSLP, then of course we would be crediting them, but if it comes through a third party, we can put in attribution if it is very easy and obvious, but otherwise it may be too costly time-wise.

Of course, libraries are welcomed, even encouraged, to attribute items themselves.
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by imslp »

Also! If there are enough of these it is possible to automatically get the library name from IA.
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by steltz »

We could perhaps start by finding out if the uploaders are many, or just a few of our uploaders. We could at least ask them to put in the scanning library rather than I/A.
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by steltz »

We currently have over 2,000 items from I/A.
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by Carolus »

There's been some discussion on the MLA list about this also. As I pointed out there, many things are in fact linked to that the original library is mentioned. We don't have room for paragraphs of description in the Scanner field for file entries, so it's usually an easily understandable abbreviation, like BYU = Brigham Young University.
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by Eric »

Should it be the source library or the scanning library? (A number of opera vocal scores at the Archive are from the University of Toronto, but -scanned- by the University of Ottawa. So what information is being looked for here, since I can't provide both universities, there isn't room?
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by steltz »

Eric wrote:A number of opera vocal scores at the Archive are from the University of Toronto, but -scanned- by the University of Ottawa
Would something like "U.Toronto/U.Ottawa" work?
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by imslp »

I would still advise we don't spend much time on this, but if you want to scratch that itch, I've created a FTE function that automatically gets the library name from IA. You can just add abbreviations. (Also, all names less than 18 characters will automatically be shown even if there is no abbreviation definition; any name longer than that will default to "Internet Archive".)

http://imslp.org/wiki/MediaWiki:FTE:iarchlib (included in both IArch and IArchS)
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by Fynnjamin »

It's not just Internet Archive - the "Internet Culturale" template doesn't have the option to name the library. Also it's a website which in my experience is more difficult to search than Internet Archive.

Why not use the RISM Library Sigla for the library scanner abbreviations? These are recognised scholarly abbreviations for libraries across the world that have printed or manuscript music holdings. Admittedly, small private collections often don't have a RISM siglum - but it is simple enough to request one.
see here: http://www.rism.info/en/sigla.html

Thus the British Library siglum = GB-Lbl (= Great Britain-Londonbritishlibrary)
Bodleian Library = GB-Ob
the ever-unwieldy Biblioteca di Conservatorio di Musica, S. Pietro a Majella, Napoli is simply abbreviated to = I-Nc (= Italia-Napoliconservatorio)
Biblioteca del Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi = I-Mc

perhaps the full name could appear when you hover the mouse over the name of the scanner?
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by imslp »

I don't know enough about the RISM Library Sigla to say anything (well, the abbreviations cannot be automated, so it will need to be manually put in in any event), but it shouldn't be hard to extend this system to Internet Culturale. Can you give a link to the Internet Culturale template, along with an example?
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by Davydov »

As it happens last month I added the sigla to the page listing external library templates, if that helps at all:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:External ... _templates
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Re: Attribution of Internet Archive scans

Post by Feduol »

Great work, Davydov!

The RISM sigla seems me the best way to describe the libraries in a standardized way, shortly and internationally recognized. On musicological works, it's unanimous. But most of times the library where the score is deposited is not responsible for the scanning, but a third part organization as said above. I do think that the "scanned by" serves exclusively to attribute the scanning work and credit to who made it.

Whenever possible, I have placed for manuscripts the full RISM A/II sigla (Library sigla + shelf mark) in "Alternative Title" field when a work represents the entire page, or for an individual file in "Misc. Notes". One example to Internet Culturale, I could say the http://imslp.org/wiki/Basevi_Codex_(Various), which the scanner is the Internet Culturale but the library is Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini (I-Fc). (It's worth to remember we have already a template to online version of RISM A/II: {{RISMs}} and {{RISM}}.)

I think that libraries should contact also the Internet Archive, Internet Culturale, and others, so that they make the proper references to them. Referring to Internet Archive, as an example, IMSLP is saying where the score available in the site was obtained. Of course the IMSLP contributors would like to put as much information as possible to the work, but if the Internet Archive has no reference to the original scanner, it will a big effort to discover where that came from.
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