British library flickr

The British Library may have pushed at a bigger door than it knows.

I really like the image above. To me, it looks like a man enjoying some kind of steam-punk device designed for using your iPad in bed. According to the British Library, however, it's a monograph from T. I'm lucky to have ever seen the image at all. If it weren't for an incredibly ambitious project undertaken by the British Library, the image would probably have been lost in time, stuck in the back of a book on a back shelf of one of the world's biggest libraries. Thankfully, the British Library isn't content to let their unloved, unread books slowly turn into dust. Five years ago, the library began working with Microsoft to digitize maps , illustrations, photographs, diagrams, and more taken from centuries-old books, some famous, some virtually unheard of today.

British library flickr

Allow Reuse, Redistribute, Revise and Remix for educational and non-commercial purposes. Images uploaded to the site are released to Flickr Commons with no known copyright restrictions. Image from British Library Flickr Commons. For more information on acknowledging images with other citation styles, refer here. Please check their Terms of Use for full details before using images. You must be logged in to post a comment. Description A descriptive note detailing the content and context of the digital collection. Since , British Library released more than 1 million images to Flickr Commons. The images are arranged by different themes, such as book covers, illustrated letters, maps, flora and children book illustrations. Users may get started by viewing the Collection Highlights. Read more about the project here. Collection Type Broad terms that define the type of digital collection. Subject Broad terms or phrases that describe, identify, or interpret the digital image collection and what it depicts or expresses. Style Period Terms that define the styles, art periods, movements, etc. Vintage period.

Free art Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It has not offered free use of its real visual treasures.

.

The British Library may have pushed at a bigger door than it knows. Britain's pre-eminent research library has just put a million images from its collections on to Flickr. These pictures are free not just to browse but to use and reuse: the library even wants members of the public to research them in an experiment in crowdsourced history. Which is all great fun — but it raises massive questions about whether it is ethical to copyright or restrict the publication of any historical art, ever. The images set free by the British Library come from books published between the 17th and 19th centuries, but they do not include masterpieces. They are curiosities. A collagist like Max Ernst could have a lot of fun pasting them together to create surreal fantasies — and perhaps that is exactly what the internet will do with these steampunk exotica. It has not offered free use of its real visual treasures. You won't find its Leonardo da Vinci manuscript in this public archive, or the Lindisfarne Gospels. The images that have been released are the kind of curios that have for many years been published by companies like Dover for free use.

British library flickr

Browsing the collection is thrilling, like venturing into a wild and treasure-filled thicket without a map. This incredible visual bounty includes maps, drawings, illustrations, handwritten letters, geological diagrams, cartoons, comics, posters, and decorative scrolls. While each image on Flickr links back to a PDF of the source book, the sheer volume means that librarians cannot have a good handle on the nature of each image that the Mechanical Curator has flagged. So how have people been using the images? Because they are in the public domain and authors technically have no obligation to credit the Library, the sky is the limit. The images have been used on stickers, coloring books, games, music album covers and, inevitably a few Photoshop-enabled gags. He also took an illustration of ships coming to shore and had it printed it on a rug.

Lg g5 change battery

I'm lucky to have ever seen the image at all. Facebook Email icon An envelope. Thankfully, the British Library isn't content to let their unloved, unread books slowly turn into dust. It has not offered free use of its real visual treasures. More on this story. Unlike collections that merely happen to have a Filippo Lippi painting and so can charge for its publication, the American space agency is the "creator" of space photographs taken by the Hubble telescope. For more information on acknowledging images with other citation styles, refer here. Work Types Terms that identify the kinds of works in the digital collection being described. These pictures are free not just to browse but to use and reuse: the library even wants members of the public to research them in an experiment in crowdsourced history. Every time one of Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings from the Royal Collection is published in a book, the Queen gets a pay day. This big bold act of generosity only scratches the surface. The British Library's brave move implicitly recognises the absurdity of this kind of pictorial restriction in the digital age.

.

Since , British Library released more than 1 million images to Flickr Commons. BL: That would make for a great piece of research actually! London Press Club halves subscription fees to boost membership. Beautiful Science at the British Library — in pictures. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The images set free by the British Library come from books published between the 17th and 19th centuries, but they do not include masterpieces. BI: The work has been shared in a way that allows the images to be re-used. Sign up. When will holders of great art recognise that it now circulates freely online, and stop charging print publishers, authors, magazines and newspapers for its use? BI: How many more books and images does the British Library have that could be digitized and uploaded in such a way?