Open Access from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Topic: Art

Resource of the Week: Open Access from Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art announced recently that “…more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum’s website for non-commercial use — including in scholarly publications in any media — without permission from the Museum and without a fee. The number of available images will increase as new digital files are added on a regular basis … The Metropolitan Museum’s initiative — called Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) — provides access to images of art in its collection that the Museum believes to be in the public domain and free of other known restrictions; these images are now available for scholarly use in any media. Works that are covered by the new policy are identified on the Museum’s website with the acronym OASC … OASC was developed as a resource for students, educators, researchers, curators, academic publishers, non-commercial documentary filmmakers, and others involved in scholarly or cultural work. Prior to the establishment of OASC, the Metropolitan Museum provided images upon request, for a fee, and authorization was subject to terms and conditions.” As you are teaching your students about copyright with regard to their work, this is a great example of works that can be used for scholarly purposes without having to request permission or login. If you have questions about whether a use is scholarly, visit the OASC FAQ. http://metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online