Fair Use
and the
Colonial Albany Social History Project

the in-progress thoughts of
Stefan Bielinski


We have observed that the Internet has dramatically changed the educational playing field. Questions regarding copyright and access to resources follow the seemingly wide-open use across the spectrum of information resources (private and public) that formerly might have been sequestered behind the closed doors that sometimes are called "collections."

Our general intent is to make information (textual and visual) relevant to the people of colonial Albany and their world world widely available on this website. Because we are historians, we feel that part of our educational mission is to fully describe the resources we have utilized and to point the user to the source of the resource! In all our endeavors, we are advocates for direct contact with all historical resources (information, artifacts, buildings even, and on-site community experiences!

Initially, we may have been cautioned by traditional copyright "wisdoms." However, what we see online and our purely educational and promotional purposes have driven us to press onward!

Increasingly, institutions and repositories have begun to the issue statements on "fair use." We plan to provide links to the most interesting of them. Here are an eclectic array of examples:

The OCLC
Library of Congress
ARL
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Stanford University
TERRA
Wikipedia; Digital images Wiki

our thoughts on this topic are IN PROCESS

This statement has been added to explain our thinking and to stimulate discussion of this issue. It also is used to learn more about unattributed materials that we may use on this website. Please do not hestitate to contact me at the Colonial Albany Project if you wish to become involved!

In August 2003, we began adding a link to this page to website features that utilize materials in external collections. Material resouces from "our Collections" at the New York State Museum and from the so-called Graphics Archive of the Colonial Albany Project are used and attributed throughout this website!



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posted: 8/5/03; updated 4/15012