The Google Books snakepit summarized

Google has been scanning books for its service Google Books for some time now, getting into all sorts of hot water concerning - how unexpected - copyright issues. The end of the lawsuits filed by several parties are not to be expected soon and are the topic of heated debate especially in the US. To inform its members The College Art Association has published an interesting feature on its website, containing a brief summary of the court proceedings thusfar and several links to recent articles expressing diffenent points of view on the matter.

A fresh perspective

Without wanting to make a straight comparison between computer games and a scientific journal, the video below does make an interesting point when it comes to the engaging nature of new media as opposed to the so-called 'dead tree' media. Ignore the scientifically unsound use of the' what if' question and instead focus on the main point: new media offer new and more involving ways to communicate content, making information active instead of passive. And that is something the jongHolland Thinktank strives for: creating a living, active environment for scientific endeavour and debate on modern and recent art history.

jongHolland is alive!

To us, it is essential to inform the broad network of art professionials continously about the future of jongHolland and even to let them feel the void that jongHolland has left behind now and then. That is why we handed out five hundred flyers at the Museum Congress that took place on October 8th and 9th in Middelburg. We received a great deal of enthusiastic reactions and can happily conclude that jongHolland is still alive in the hearts and minds of the Dutch art world.

Do we really need another art journal?

As jongHolland was the only journal in The Netherlands on (Dutch) art since 1850 with high scholarly standards, it is dearly missed - not only as an opportunity to publish one's articles, but also as a way for readers to keep up with what's going on in current art historical research. The results of our survey confirm this. With the new jongHolland as an online platform fully in English we can add to what was already quite special. Dutch as well as foreign researchers that are studying Dutch subjects can then report on their findings, and can also use jongHolland as a source for new research. Also, we believe that the more decent information is to be found on the internet, the better. Quality should make us stand out from the crowd. For all scholars and others interested in Dutch art it will be easier to connect with one another, making for a more lively and better informed art history scene.

Copyrights on images

http://www.nrcboeken.nl/nieuws/dbnl-verwijdert-beelden-van-na-1900-van-zijn-website

When considering digital publishing about modern art, copyrights on images are really, really something to chew over carefully. The recent decision to remove all images from the Dutch website 'Digital Library' shows exactly how careful we have to be...

Protest tegen bezuiniging op digitale kennisinfrastructuur voor erfgoed

Zes koepelorganisaties (BRAIN, DEN, KVAN, LCM, Museumvereniging en Virtueel Platform) hebben een protestbrief opgesteld die wordt ingediend bij de vaste kamercommissie OCW. Deze commissie bespreekt op 2 november a.s. de OCW-begroting voor 2010. De erfgoedorganisaties hebben ook een petitie opgesteld die online ondertekend kan worden.

Op Prinsjesdag 2009 heeft het ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap aangekondigd fors te gaan bezuinigen op het budget voor digitale cultuur, innovatie en versterking van de kennisinfrastructuur in de erfgoedsector. In 2010 wordt het budget met meer dan 60 procent gekort ten opzichte van 2009. Er blijft slechts 3 miljoen euro over.

Vanaf 2011 wordt er nog meer gekort. Dan blijft slechts ca. 1 miljoen euro over voor de gehele erfgoedsector om in te investeren in een landelijke digitale kennisinfrastructuur.

De organisaties zijn bang dat Nederland zijn rol als gidsland op het gebied van digitaal erfgoed en de inzet van nieuwe media door erfgoedinstellingen door de bezuinigingen verliest. Ze vinden ook dat de bezuiniging in strijd is met het algemene beleidsvoornemen van de regering om juist nu te investeren in innovatie om de groei van de kenniseconomie te versterken.

Brief aan de vaste kamercommissie OCW, zie:http://www.den.nl/docs/20091005044219
Petitie, zie: http://www.tboek.nl/gastenboek/protestcultuurenict

Read me, Cite Me, Count me! symposium on publication strategy and research marketing for academics

Read Me, Cite Me, Count Me! brings together academics from the fields of the humanities, physics and social sciences for a critical but constructive dialogue digital publishing strategies used by both academics and institutions. Prof.dr. Bas van Bavel (Economic and Social History at Utrecht University(UU)) will talk about how to get your publication accepted, whilst prof.dr. Hans Bertens (20th Century Literary and Intellectual History at UU) will take a critical look at the way ERIH lists for scientific publishing are compiled - a subject which greatly interests the jongHolland think tank, because we're definitely aiming for acceptance of the coming jongHolland platform at ERIH. The paper version of jongHolland had, up until its disappearance in 2007, a B-rating. An excellent score indeed, yet by re-establishing jongHolland as a peer-reviewed platform we even hope to up that to A-status in the future.

Erik van Tuijn will be representing jongHolland at the symposium, and if you want in as well, register quickly, because I heard that reservations are going well...
For a complete program visit this link.