0.5 Approaches to distribution of fee-free images: case studies  (Page 13/13)

In deciding to move forward with participation in The Commons, the Smithsonian defined the following goals forthe project:

• Increase public knowledge of, and access to, the Smithsonian’s digital collections, programs, expertise, and other resources.
  • Use photographic collections to draw new visitors to the Smithsonian, those who might not otherwise come to SImuseums, libraries, and archives in pursuit of their interests.
• Develop a Smithsonian online community by reaching out to audiences.
  • Explore the interests of “digital natives” who use social networking sites in ways the SI has yet tounderstand.
• Improve public outreach by learning more about SI audiences through social tagging, public comments, and the resulting social dialogue.
  • Gather information about the interests of SI audiences and enhance the documentation and interpretation ofits collections using the knowledge, perspectives, and experiences of these audiences.

On June 16, 2008, nine hundred images were uploaded from the Smithsonian Institution to The Commons; by October 2008, thenumber of SI images available in The Commons had doubled. All the images in The Commons can be viewed and downloaded at five different resolutions; the originalimage, contributed by the owning institution, determines the size of the largest file. The Smithsonian Institution registered for a Flickr “Pro” account, which costs $24.95 per year and allows the upload ofimages up to 20MB each. Flickr officially supports JPEGs, non-animated GIFs, and PNGs. TIFFs can be uploaded as well, but they are automatically converted andstored as JPEGs. In the case of the Smithsonian, there is no pan- institutional policy about what size the “original” image should be; each SIunit makes that determination independently. As a result, only a portion of the SI images in The Commons are, at this time, of adequate size to download forpublication. Recognizing that Flickr is commercial, and therefore not a trusted website in many educational environments, SI has added the same images to theSmithsonian Photography Initiative website, which is educational, trusted, and branded with the Smithsonian Institution imprimatur. Each SI image appearing ona Flickr Commons page links back to the same image on the SPI website, Click. See Search Images section of Click. (External Link) .

Copyright and the commons

The Smithsonian Institution researches images contributed to The Commons, releasing those they believe have no known legalrestrictions. This includes copyright and other legal restrictions, such as those required by the donor of the image or the underlying object. The imagesare flagged with the rights statement, “No known copyright restrictions,” and viewed on The Commons with two associated links. One link leads to the genericFlickr rights page that reminds users to conduct “an independent analysis of applicable law before proceeding with a particular new use.” See usage page of The Commons, (External Link) . The other link takes the user to the explicit rights statement for the image provided by the contributing institution. In the case ofthe SI images, the link takes the user to the “Copyright: Terms and Conditions” page of the Smithsonian Institution website to learn:

Anyone wishing to use any of these files or images for commercial use, publication, or any purpose other than fair use as defined bylaw, must request and receive prior written permission from the Smithsonian Institution. Permission for such use is granted on a case-by-case basis at thesole discretion of Smithsonian's Office of Product Development and Licensing. A usage fee may be assessed depending on the type and nature of the proposeduse. http://www.si.edu/copyright/.

At present, this leads to some confusion for users, as the statement suggests that some of the SI content on The Commons maybe by protected by usage restrictions. SI is aware of this discrepancy and is working to develop new, more accurate language.

Smithsonian institution conclusion

The Smithsonian Institution joined The Commons on Flickr to make its content more widely accessible. After the firstfour months, it found that Flickr definitely increased exposure of their images to more individuals. “Portraits of Scientists,” a set of images of nineteenth-and early twentieth-century scientists and inventors, has been on the Smithsonian Libraries’ website since 2003. In the first three months the set wason The Commons, the images received nearly as many visits as during the previous five years on the Smithsonian site. SI is not currently using The Commons todelivery fee-free, high-resolution images for scholarly publication, but may consider doing so in the future.

The Commons is a space for public institutions to share images of their collections. “Pro” membership in TheCommons permits museums to upload an unlimited number of images as large as twenty megabytes in size. The Smithsonian Institution’s goal in providing images to TheCommons is to expand access to its photographic collections, not explicitly to supply high-resolution images for scholarly publication. Other museums, however,may find that The Commons provides a cost-effective delivery mechanism of fee- free images for scholarly publication.