Fine Art: New York City’s Morgan Library and Museum Will Digitize Their Entire Collection of 10,000 Drawings
As we point out below the entire digital collection, 10,000 drawings, will be open-access for non-commercial use.
From The New York Times:
The Morgan Library and Museum announced Friday that it planned to digitize its entire drawings collection, one of the most important in the world, containing works from the 14th through the 21st centuries by masters like Michelangelo, Leonardo, Dürer, Rembrandt and Cézanne
From The Morgan Library and Museum (PDF):
The initiative will result in a digital library of more than 10,000 images, representing drawings spanning the fourteenth to twenty-first centuries, available free of charge on the Morgan’s website.
The project will begin in October and is expected to be completed within one year, contributing significantly to the Morgan’s commitment to advancing drawings scholarship.
The images will be accessible in two formats: one for general identification and another for detailed study with enhanced resolution. Scholarly information about each drawing will be linked to a corresponding Morgan catalogue record. Importantly, the project includes approximately 2,000 images of versos (reverse sides) of drawings that contain rarely seen sketches or inscriptions by the artist.
[Our Emphasis] The digital library will be available on an open-access basis, and can be downloaded for non-commercial uses such as classroom presentations, dissertations, and educational websites devoted to the fine arts.
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Future plans for the project involve digitization of the department’s print collection, including its celebrated group of Rembrandt prints, as well as artists’ sketchbook.
Filed under: Digital Collections, Digital Preservation, Interactive Tools, Libraries, News, Open Access
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.