Re: VMs: RE: Map scans now posted...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Chris,

>   Darn good idea. I see a lot of the current problems stem from (or are
> exacerbated by) poor quality representations of the original source material.
>
>   What if we created a sponsorship deal of some sort? Buy a page for the VMs
> effort, have your name permanently recorded on the margin of the image 
> provided
> via the web. Make the resulting pages available free to all but under 
> copyright
> to the VMs group, stipulating that they may be redistributed only without
> alteration.
>
>   I'd buy a couple pages.
>
>   I don't know anything about non-profits, but if it was possible to make 
> it a tax
> deductible donation, a lot more people might contribute. I bet there's geeks
> abounding who'd like to buy a small page of infamy.

Money isn't the issue here, it's priorities - because it's hard to link the 
VMS with existing art historical traditions (and hence with art historians 
etc), the VMS isn't in favour with academics, and hence isn't high up on 
the Beinecke's Big List Of Important Things To Bear In Mind.

Like all institutions, the library has to prioritise its activities to fit 
its budget to its stakeholders' needs - and however passionate we are about 
the VMS, study of it is likely to remain a minority interest, unless some 
kind of smoking cannon breakthrough occurs to push it up the list (and onto 
the academic map).

For example: I'm pretty sure that I asked the Beinecke curators about the 
"9-rosette" page a good while ago - AFAICR, the answer was that this had 
not been digitised, was not on microfilm, and was about to undergo 
restoration... all problems that our (collective) money probably cannot solve.

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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