Now at the Met

Posted in Thomas J. Watson Library

Digitizing the Libraries' Collections: Pictorialist Photography Exhibition Catalogues, 1891–1914

Dan Lipcan, Assistant Museum Librarian, Thomas J. Watson Library; and Malcolm Daniel, Senior Curator, Department of Photographs

Posted: Friday, June 7, 2013

Photo-Secession (detail of cover). New York: Photo-Secession, 1905. Thomas J. Watson Library (213.7 P56)

«One of the first projects we undertook upon establishing the Thomas J. Watson Library's digitization initiative a few years ago was a collaboration with the Department of Photographs and its Joyce F. Menschel Photography Library.

Read More

Digitizing the Libraries' Collections: Industrial Arts at the Metropolitan Museum, 1917–40

Antoniette M. Guglielmo, 2011–2012 Sylvan C. Coleman and Pamela Coleman Memorial Fund Fellow, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art

Posted: Monday, July 30, 2012

Installation views

When the Museum Library took its first steps toward digitizing rare materials from its collection over two years ago, one of the first groups of items we selected for scanning was a set of pamphlets that accompanied a landmark series of American industrial arts exhibitions from 1917 to 1940.

Read More

An Evening with Illustrator Sophie Blackall

Leah High, Public Services Librarian, Thomas J. Watson Library

Posted: Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Sophie Blackall © 2011 | Transit poster commissioned by MTA Arts for Transit (detail)

As the public services librarian in the Museum's Thomas J. Watson and Nolen libraries, I love having the opportunity to develop programs for children, teens, and adults that connect the libraries' collections to art in the Met's galleries. Visitors are often unaware that the Museum has libraries, and they are particularly surprised to learn about Nolen, which is open to readers of all ages.

Read More

Digitizing the Libraries' Collections: An Introduction

Robyn Fleming, Assistant Museum Librarian, Thomas J. Watson Library; and Dan Lipcan, Assistant Museum Librarian, Thomas J. Watson Library

Posted: Thursday, January 5, 2012

NE57 .C6 1874

The Museum Library, authorized by the Museum's 1870 charter and formally established in 1880, is one of the world's great collections of art historical research materials. However, thousands of printed books in the Library and other departments of the Museum are deteriorating rapidly through heavy use, acidic paper, or both. In some cases, important information has already been lost.

Over the past two years the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art has established a digitization program, with the dual goals of preserving these original printed materials and expanding access to their content. This post inaugurates a series of Now at the Met entries in which we'll highlight some of the interesting and valuable items we've decided to digitize.

Catalogue

Catalogue of engravings, etchings and mezzotints, belonging to James L. Claghorn of Philadelphia, and lent by him for exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 128 West 14th Street, New York, March, 1874 (Detail of page 5). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1874. 7 pages, 25 cm. Thomas J. Watson Library (NE57 .C6 1874)

Illustrated above is a page from an 1874 print exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, and it's clear that we're close to losing forever some of the crucial details like artists' names and the titles of their works. Materials like these are historically important and frequently consulted, but will not be able to physically withstand much further use. If we only have a few turns through a physical object before it irreparably disintegrates, we want to make sure that one of those uses is for the scanner so we can preserve as much of the item and its information as possible.

Using the scanner

A Library staff member scanning eighteenth-century fashion plates on the Zeutschel book scanner

Our process comprises three basic stages. We select the books and collections to be digitized; typically we look for items that are unique or rare, in the public domain, and not accessible elsewhere in digitized form. Next, we scan the items here in the library on our high-quality Zeutschel book scanner, illustrated above, or we send them to an outside vendor for scanning. Finally, we provide access to the digitized files using a software package that includes a public website and the option to index the full text of our items, thereby making vast amounts of previously unavailable content searchable.

We believe it is both important and in line with the Library's and the Museum's missions to digitize as many of the Museum's earliest and most ephemeral publications as possible.

To date, thanks to a dedicated group of interns, we have digitized more than 250 early Museum publications using our Zeutschel scanner. Most of these items relate to the Museum's collections and exhibitions, but we have also scanned publications on topics ranging from collection development and Museum policies to lecture programs to early versions of the constitution and by-laws.

Exhibition Cover

Catalogue of the New York Centennial Loan Exhibition of Paintings, selected from the private art galleries, 1876 (Detail of cover). New York, 1876. 23 pages, 23 cm. Thomas J. Watson Library (N610.A53 M48 1870–76)

Shown above is a catalogue from the 1876 Centennial Loan Exhibition of Paintings. This exhibition, one of many celebratory events held throughout New York City and the country during that year, gathered together paintings and watercolors from preeminent galleries and private collectors in the area. According to the exhibition's organizers, the quality of the art in this exhibition had "never been surpassed on this continent."1

This digital collection of early Metropolitan Museum of Art publications will undoubtedly grow much larger as we identify more material; as of this writing, more than one hundred publications dating between 1870 and 1905 are in the final stages of scanning and will be available online soon. We are also working with Museum Archives to identify and include additional Museum publications not held by Watson Library. One of our ultimate goals is to compile the "digital library of record" for early Metropolitan Museum of Art publications.

The Thomas J. Watson Library has already digitized more than three thousand items both independently and in collaboration with Metropolitan Museum of Art curatorial departments as well as other art museum libraries and galleries. Together, these items represent a wealth of content for researchers to explore in order to further their knowledge of art history, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and its collections.


Related Link
Explore The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries' digital collections: http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm


[1] Catalogue of the New York Centennial Loan Exhibition of Paintings, selected from the private art galleries, 1876 (New York: s.n., 1876), Introduction.

Today in Met History: October 18

James Moske, Managing Archivist, Museum Archives

Posted: Monday, October 18, 2010

On October 18, 1880, Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Luigi Palma di Cesnola urged the Museum's Trustees to create an art library that would help fulfill the institution's educational mission.

Read More

Today in Met History: July 19

Melissa Bowling, Assistant Archivist, Museum Archives

Posted: Monday, July 19, 2010

One hundred years ago today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened the doors of its library's new home to art historians, students, and the general public.

Read More

A Day in the Life of an Art Librarian

Lisa Harms, Associate Manager for Circulation and Collections, Thomas J. Watson Library

Posted: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

During my weekly shifts at the reference desk at the Thomas J. Watson Library, I routinely get asked the same question by inquisitive Museum visitors who pass by our doors: "The Museum has a library?" Over the years, I have learned to treat this as an opportunity to promote the library's collection, services, and resources.

Read More

About this Blog

Now at the Met offers in-depth articles and multimedia features about the Museum's current exhibitions, events, research, announcements, behind-the-scenes activities, and more.

Categories