Transcript Slide 1

Risqué Business: Risks & Realities
of Digitizing Artists’ Papers
The Archives of American Art
collects, preserves and makes
available primary source
material documenting the
history of the visual arts in the
United States
www.aaa.si.edu
What are the risks?
• Copyright infringement – published,
unpublished, licensed.
• Privacy Issues – medical records, social
security records, banking records, tax records,
2nd or 3rd person concerns.
• Appropriateness, Moral & Ethical Issues nudity, lewd, lascivious, pornographic.
AAA Approach
– Selection based on research value and use
– Archival approach, not item approach
– Do not seek copyright holder’s permission – not
reasonable or feasible
– Assume that almost everything falls under a broad
concept of “fair use”
– Display thumbnails as initial point of access
– Avoid only the riskiest materials
– Rely on existing archival appraisal skill set
– No item-level cataloging for fully digitized
collections
What we won’t risk – sort of...
• Photographs stamped with a statement indicating the
photograph can not be reproduced without
permission.
• Tax records (usually)
• Social Security numbers and records
• Medical records (usually)
• Personnel and payroll records
• Lewd, lascivious, and pornographic materials
• Nude photographs – especially those not of donor
• Nude photographs of children
• Published books/catalogs
• Photographs of works of art
...“oh curse this
damned abortion –
I can’t [can’t] be
good & they say I’ve
got to. Eileen
I am shaved & I
keep wanting your
hand on me there -
Moses Soyer letter to
grandson Daniel Soyer,
circa 1964.
Barbara Aikens
Archives of American Art,
Smithsonian Institution
[email protected]