Quote from full announcement http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-fi...
We have released over a million imageshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibraryonto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images
were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsofthttp://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century-Book-Digitisation-Project-343.aspxwho then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of.
Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary Example of image http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11307195524/ Example of all images from a book http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/tags/sysnum002660292 Stuff for coders https://github.com/BL-Labs/imagedirectory
So... :-)
On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 11:08 AM, Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada emijrp@gmail.com wrote:
Quote from full announcement http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-fi...
We have released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain.
The language used here confuses me. Given the age of the source material and the lack of originality in a simple page-scan, wouldn't the resulting images already be PD? Perhaps "release them back into the Public Domain," would be better described as "release them to the public" ?
--R
its more legal/copyright descriptive, that necessitates the wording than just release them to the public which can still indicate they have restrictions
On 16 December 2013 11:46, Robinson Tryon bishop.robinson@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 11:08 AM, Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada emijrp@gmail.com wrote:
Quote from full announcement
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-fi...
We have released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of
17th,
18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into
the
Public Domain.
The language used here confuses me. Given the age of the source material and the lack of originality in a simple page-scan, wouldn't the resulting images already be PD? Perhaps "release them back into the Public Domain," would be better described as "release them to the public" ?
--R
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 8:36 PM, Gnangarra gnangarra@gmail.com wrote:
its more legal/copyright descriptive, that necessitates the wording than just release them to the public which can still indicate they have restrictions
I guess I was just concerned that it was sending the wrong message re: the images, suggesting that the British Library had to put the images into the Public Domain because they (or some other entity) could still hold copyright to them.
If it is unclear to the public that slavish reproductions of out-of-copyright 2D works are not themselves eligible for copyright, then perhaps we should work to improve that understanding. It's difficult for a member of the public to exercise his rights unless he knows to what he is entitled!
--R
Remember that while US caselaw is clear on this point, it is less clear-cut elsewhere. We at WM tend to take a clear line that 2D reproductions are ineligible, but it's not a guaranteed absolute truth, particularly in the UK! We can predict how a court might rule... but they haven't yet, and claiming copyright is a legally defensible position in many cases.
("Legally defensible" is not always "correct", of course...)
As a result, an explicit declaration is a positive thing and definitely should not be discouraged.
A. On 16 Dec 2013 04:57, "Robinson Tryon" bishop.robinson@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 8:36 PM, Gnangarra gnangarra@gmail.com wrote:
its more legal/copyright descriptive, that necessitates the wording than just release them to the public which can still indicate they have restrictions
I guess I was just concerned that it was sending the wrong message re: the images, suggesting that the British Library had to put the images into the Public Domain because they (or some other entity) could still hold copyright to them.
If it is unclear to the public that slavish reproductions of out-of-copyright 2D works are not themselves eligible for copyright, then perhaps we should work to improve that understanding. It's difficult for a member of the public to exercise his rights unless he knows to what he is entitled!
--R
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
On 12/15/2013 05:08 PM, Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada wrote:
Quote from full announcement http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-fi...
We have released over a million images <http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary> onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft <http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century-Book-Digitisation-Project-343.aspx> [...]Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary Example of image http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11307195524/ Example of all images from a book http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/tags/sysnum002660292 Stuff for coders https://github.com/BL-Labs/imagedirectory
I found an illustration from a Swedish book, found it in the catalog of the British Library, and from there I could both download a PDF and view the whole book in an online 'item viewer'.
However, the downloaded PDF has a much lower resolution (I estimate it at 150 dpi) than the real scans (which I estimate at 300 dpi). The illustrations on Flickr are in full resolution.
Has anybody found out how to download the whole book in full resolution? The 'item viewer' appears to be a Javascript zoom and pan interface based on layers of 'tiles' (similar to OpenStreetMap), scaled and cut from the scanned images.
I had the same problem with books scanned by the Norwegian national library, but there I was able to figure out how to download images in full resolution by requesting large tiles at full zoom. The URLs used by the British Library are opaque to me.
Here is the illustration found on Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11067189413/
The description there says 'page 331 of Elfsyssel', Identifier: 000507311, an easily identifiable book.
How can I search Flickr for other 'Elfsyssel' pictures? This search yields nothing, http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=elfsyssel
The library catalog record is found here, http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?mode=Basic&vi...
After I downloaded the PDF, I made the book available for reading and proofreading here, http://runeberg.org/elfsyssel/
The illustration (on "page 331") is here, http://runeberg.org/elfsyssel/0331.html but even if you select "full resolution" there, you only get the image from the PDF, and not the good picture from Flickr.
Hi Lars,
The original scans are large single-page TIFFs (or JP2? not immediately sure) from which these files were extracted - as you've noticed, they're not taken from the PDFs.
The master images aren't available online, but I believe this is more for reasons of scale and size than from a desire to keep them protected - I know they've been made available to on-site researchers without any restrictions. You'd be best off contacting the BL team if you want access to the originals.
For other items from the same book, use the imagesfrombook tag:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/tags/imagesfrombook000507311/
Andrew.
On 20 December 2013 19:50, Lars Aronsson lars@aronsson.se wrote:
On 12/15/2013 05:08 PM, Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada wrote:
Quote from full announcement http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-fi...
We have released over a million images <http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary> onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by MicrosoftFlickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary Example of image http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11307195524/ Example of all images from a book http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/tags/sysnum002660292 Stuff for coders https://github.com/BL-Labs/imagedirectory
I found an illustration from a Swedish book, found it in the catalog of the British Library, and from there I could both download a PDF and view the whole book in an online 'item viewer'.
However, the downloaded PDF has a much lower resolution (I estimate it at 150 dpi) than the real scans (which I estimate at 300 dpi). The illustrations on Flickr are in full resolution.
Has anybody found out how to download the whole book in full resolution? The 'item viewer' appears to be a Javascript zoom and pan interface based on layers of 'tiles' (similar to OpenStreetMap), scaled and cut from the scanned images.
I had the same problem with books scanned by the Norwegian national library, but there I was able to figure out how to download images in full resolution by requesting large tiles at full zoom. The URLs used by the British Library are opaque to me.
Here is the illustration found on Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11067189413/
The description there says 'page 331 of Elfsyssel', Identifier: 000507311, an easily identifiable book.
How can I search Flickr for other 'Elfsyssel' pictures? This search yields nothing, http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=elfsyssel
The library catalog record is found here, http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?mode=Basic&vi...
After I downloaded the PDF, I made the book available for reading and proofreading here, http://runeberg.org/elfsyssel/
The illustration (on "page 331") is here, http://runeberg.org/elfsyssel/0331.html but even if you select "full resolution" there, you only get the image from the PDF, and not the good picture from Flickr.
-- Lars Aronsson (lars@aronsson.se) Project Runeberg - free Nordic literature - http://runeberg.org/
Commons-l mailing list Commons-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
On 12/20/2013 09:21 PM, Andrew Gray wrote:
Hi Lars,
The original scans are large single-page TIFFs (or JP2? not immediately sure) from which these files were extracted - as you've noticed, they're not taken from the PDFs.
The master images aren't available online, but I believe this is more for reasons of scale and size than from a desire to keep them protected - I know they've been made available to on-site researchers without any restrictions. You'd be best off contacting the BL team if you want access to the originals.
Of course I can't know if there is an "original" scan in even higher resolution, but the one found in the PDF has been reduced too far, down to c. 150 dpi, where some fine print is no longer legible. What I want is one that has only been reduced down to 300 dpi or so. How can I get that?
I have written to the BL webmaster. But there is also a chance that someone else has been able to scrape the BL website?
The item viewer for this book opens at http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/lsidyv36f7e082 where "lsidyv36f7e082" apparently is its ID. Good. The opening title page is http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/lsidyv36f7e082#ark:/81055/vdc_000000011B9D.0... where the trailing "007" is the sequential number of the scanned page. Also good.
If I right-click and "view image", I get the whole title page in minimum zoom, but its URL is 430 kilobytes long, starting with "data:image/png;base64,iVBORw". So this is apparently the image (430 kbytes). As I zoom in and "view image", I get similar sized (1-2 MB) tiles of the whole page, at a higher zoom level.
I'm no JavaScript expert, but the display frame's source in one place says "jp2level1=5", which might be an indicator of what's behind.
The images found on Flickr are in the 300 dpi resolution that I want, but they only cover the illustrations, not all text pages.
On 12/20/2013 10:23 PM, Lars Aronsson wrote:
where some fine print is no longer legible. What I want is one that has only been reduced down to 300 dpi or so. How can I get that?
With a little help from okfn-labs (Open Knowledge Foundation), here is a script that works for my book:
#!/bin/sh pag=1 while true do hex=`printf "%04X" $pag` dec=`printf "%04d" $pag` if [ ! -s $dec.jpg ] then echo -n . wget -q -O $dec.jpg "http://access.bl.uk/IIIFImageService/ark:/81055/vdc_000000011B9A.0x00$hex/0,..." || break sleep 2 else echo -n : fi pag=`expr $pag + 1` done
That is the URL for one tile, but the tile that I request starts at 0,0 and is 10000 pixels wide, so it contains the full page 1800x2400 pixels, in full (pct:100) = 300 dpi resolution. This was faster than waiting for BL's webmaster's response on Monday.
In my case, I want the JPEGs. But if you want to use a book in Wikisource, you might want to create a Djvu or PDF bundle of all the JPEGs for the entire book.