Digital Collections

The Image Collections

The BGC’s Digital Collections, which is in a state of constant and continual growth, represents a broad survey of the decorative arts and material culture, with deeper coverage in certain periods, materials or regions, as dictated by faculty interests. This collection of approximately 22,000 images is fully integrated into the Artstor digital library through our subscription to Artstor’s JSTOR Forum. In addition to the BGC’s institutional collections, with its particular focus on the decorative arts and material culture, Bard College’s art historically oriented collection, with nearly 38,000 images, is also available to students and faculty within JSTOR Forum. Other JSTOR Forum-accessible image collections—numbering over 12,000 images—include the BGC Exhibition, BGC Institutional Photographs, and Paul Hollister (studio glass) collections.

The BGC’s 35mm slide archive, housed outside the Digital Collections’s public space and in the Library’s lower level, numbers 50,000 images. It reflects the teaching interests of the BGC’s faculty from its earliest days and is a near-comprehensive overview of the decorative arts, spanning time, geography and medium. The collection has been digitized on an add-need basis over time, and though it is currently inactive, faculty may request digitization of slides to facilitate their teaching.

The BGC’s Paul Hollister Slide Collection contains approximately 17,000 slides compiled by late glass scholar, glass collector, and painter Paul Hollister (1918-2004) for teaching the history of glass. Many of the images were taken by Hollister himself and contain such imagery as glass studios, glassmaking techniques, and exhibitions of studio and art glass throughout the United States and Europe. Hollister was one of the leading authorities on glass paperweights and taught at Bard Graduate Center in its early history. This collection was donated to the Digital Collections by Mr. Hollister’s widow, Irene Hollister (1920-2016). A selection of slides showing workshops and glassmaking techniques from studio glass artists from the 1980s and 90s have been digitized and are available through Artstor’s JSTOR Forum. Access to the physical collection is available by contacting a Digital Collections staff member.

Digital Collections provides, and in some cases lends out, various equipment to support the digitization and production of digital media. If you require training with any of the equipment or software listed below, please see a Digital Collections staff member to schedule an appointment. If you experience problems with any Digital Collections workstation, contact a Digital Collections staff member or email [email protected].

The following computing equipment is available:

• 2 24” Apple iMacs running OSX
• 1 Dell Studio XPS, with 24” screen, running Windows Vista
• 1 Epson 10000 XL Large Format Scanner
• 2 Epson Epson V700 Pro Letter Sized Scanners
• 1 Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 35mm Slide Film Scanner

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Bridge
• Adobe Dreamweaver
• Adobe Fireworks
• Adobe Acrobat X Pro
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Olympus DSS Player and Transcription Kit
• Artstor Offline Image Viewer (OIV)

• 19” Toshiba LCD Monitor
• Philips Region Free DVD Player
• Toshiba VCR
• Canon Microfilm and –fiche Reader and Scanner

The Digital Collections makes available the following specialized equipment for use off-site (to check any of these out please contact a Digital Collections staff member):

1 Olympus Digital Voice Recorder

This recorder captures audio in WMA format. The PC has Olympus’ DSS Player software and an audio transcription kit with a foot pedal to help facilitate speech transcription.

1 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS8 Digital Camera

This camera has a 14-megapixel sensor and a 16x optical zoom wide angle Leica lens, and it captures hi-definition video. The VMR supplies an SD card but students can make use of their own if they require additional storage.

2 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 Digital Cameras

These cameras have a 10-megapixel sensor and a 12x optical zoom wide angle Leica lens, and capture hi-definition video. The VMR supplies SD cards but students can make use of their own if they require additional storage.

The Digital Collections offers training and guidance in the use of equipment and software involved in the creation of digital media. The staff is available during office hours to answer questions and offer advice, but if you require in-depth training, contact a staff member in advance to schedule an appointment.

The Digital Collections also offers a number of workshops throughout the academic year on imaging-related subjects of broad interest to students, faculty, and staff.

Please note that Digital Collections employees do not function as the BGC’s technology support staff; if you have questions or problems that fall outside the purview of the Digital Collections or its equipment, please contact BGC Tech Support.

Lynda.com

The Digital Collections provides access to the on-demand video learning site Lynda.com. With a library of more than 4,000 courses, Lynda provides instruction in the software, creative and technical skills. Lynda is a high-quality resource for faculty, students, and staff looking to develop skills in areas including Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, coding and web design, education and e-learning, photography, and more. Using the Bard Graduate Center’s account, you can access videos from your home computer or mobile device.

To use the Lynda account, please contact Mike Satalof ([email protected]) or Barb Elam ([email protected]). You will be given a username and password for a limited time (usually one to two weeks). If the account is in use, you will be added to the queue for its next availability.

Artstor

The Artstor digital library is Bard Graduate Center’s primary resource for finding digital images and is accessible to students and faculty. Artstor is a subscription-based online image library with more than 2 million images of the visual arts, humanities, and social sciences, contributed by museums, archives, artists, and scholars. Users can browse in a number of different fields or search by keyword or with advanced filters. Image quality is generally excellent, with high-resolution JPEGs available for virtually all images. Note that searching for “IAP” alongside keywords will return images that have been designated by their contributor (primarily the Met) as freely publishable for academic purposes.

Shared Shelf Collections

Bard Graduate Center’s Digital Collections, which is in a state of constant and continual growth, represents a broad survey of the decorative arts and material culture, with deeper coverage in certain periods, materials, or regions, as dictated by faculty interests. This collection of approximately 22,000 images is fully integrated into the Artstor digital library through our subscription to Artstor’s JSTOR Forum. In addition to BGC’s institutional collections, with its particular focus on the decorative arts and material culture, Bard College’s art-historically oriented collection, with nearly 38,000 images, is also available to students and faculty within JSTOR Forum. Other JSTOR Forum-accessible image collections—numbering more than 12,000 images—include the BGC Exhibition, BGC Institutional Photographs, and Paul Hollister (studio glass) collections. These resources are available for use on and off campus. Images may be used for educational purposes only as outlined in the copyright law of the United States. For an orientation in accessing Artstor, contact Barb Elam for an appointment.

External Image Resources

The majority of the use of copyrighted material that takes place at Bard Graduate Center falls within the category of fair use—meaning that it requires neither permission from nor payment to the rights holder—because it is functioning in a closed, strictly educational, non-commercial forum. This is true of papers, unpublished theses, and presentations in classrooms. Any individuals interested in scholarly activities that extend beyond these confines and require the inclusion of potentially copyrighted material (i.e., images) should familiarize themselves with the complexities of United States Copyright Law. The Digital Collections has assembled the following list of external resources to aid members of the BGC community in educating themselves on the subject.

General Copyright Resources:

U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index: the U.S. Copyright Office’s site for fair use information.

Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Site: a comprehensive site for information and resources on fair use, made available by Stanford University.

Columbia University Copyright Advisory Office Site: another comprehensive site, made available by Columbia University.

Copyright Crash Course: a tutorial in copyright in academic works, originally designed for faculty, made available by the University of Texas at Austin.

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States: a thorough table for determining whether a work is under copyright or in the public domain, made available by Cornell University.

Checklist for Conducting a Fair Use Analysis: a checklist made available by Cornell University.

A Graduate Student’s Guide to Copyright: (highly recommended), made available by the University of Michigan.

Image Copyright Resources:

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts: a comprehensive project released in 2015, made available by the College Art Association (CAA).

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Copyright: resources providing guidance on the academic use of images, made available by the Visual Resources Association (VRA).

Digital Image Rights Computator: a tutorial to help the assess the intellectual property status of images documenting works of art, objects, or the built environment, made available by the Visual Resources Association (VRA).

Guide for Finding Visual Resources: information on researching and finding images and assessing their copyright, made available by Cornell University.

Images for Faculty

Digital Collections is actively interested in expanding its digital image collection to fully cover the range of materials taught at Bard Graduate Center and encourages all faculty to make use of its digitization services. To place an image order, faculty should bring their material (such as books, slides, photographs, prints, etc. that can be scanned) to a Digital Collections staff member. Book pages should be clearly marked, and all materials should be accompanied by an Image Order Form listing the date of the request, the date needed, the total number of images in the request, and the book title, page, plate, or figure numbers if applicable.

Student Image Requests (New!)

As of Fall 2015, the Digital Collections extended the image services to students. The Digital Collections will scan, catalog, and publish into Artstor’s Shared Shelf a maximum of 25 images per paper or presentation—with a minimum of five images per order. Scans can be made from publications, ephemera, or 35mm slides. The turnaround time will be one to two weeks but can be as little as two or three days, depending on the size of the order. Any requests outside of this scope (copy stand requests from rare books, for example), will be handled on a case-by-case basis. All 35mm slides must be clearly labelled for cataloguing or include cataloguing information. All images will be catalogued by the Digital Collections. “Scanning only” requests are not permitted. Please fill out a Student Image Order Form with the page #s, fig. #s, etc. of the images you need scanned and bring your materials directly to the Digital Collections. Books can be from the library or your personal collections. Digitization requests are for Bard Graduate Center assignments only and not for outside or personal projects.