Plundering digital collections...

[Irishmaestro]

I've been trying to pick my way through an Italian library's digital collections recently (with some difficulty - I don't speak Italian!!), and have come across a bit of a problem. The site has some wonderful stuff on it, some of which has been put up on IMSLP already. They've a particular batch of scores, however, that, although you can plainly see thumbnails, when you try to load the full images, all you get is a series of black images with a grey water-mark. Does anyone know what's going on there, or how to access the scores they've digitised?

Here's an example of what I'm on about: http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/cmbm/i ... 7/V077.asp. The thumbnails you see are of the first edition of Jean-Henry d'Anglebert's Pieces de Clavessin of 1689. As per what I said above, what you get when you click on the thumbnails is a black image. I'm very keen to rip some of the scores from that site and get them up on IMSLP if I can. Anyone know what's going wrong here? Have they forgotten to put the images up, or is it me being technologically stupid? xD

[Boccaccio]

I experience the same problem. Actually I think it is done to prevent us from downloading the files and uploading them on IMSLP. Some time ago, one could download the files without any water mark (that's how I got the files uploaded so far by me). Only a few weeks ago they changed to the (visible) files with water mark... and now it seems they decided to only keep the water mark

EDIT: I noticed that the black file seems to be a particular problem with your link, some other works are still available (including the water mark). Another problem about the Bologna site: There is unfortunately no way to browse through their collection, so you never really know what is available there at the moment.

[Irishmaestro]

Hmmm... I don't see why they'd have a problem with people putting their scans up on IMSLP - surely the point of 'digital collections' is to share great works of out-of-copyright literature with the world. I was rather disappointed that they've blocked people from that d'Anglebert score, it's a beautiful example of late-17th Century engraving. It's also one of only about 6 or 7 harpsichord books published in the 17th Century in France (along with collections by Chambonnieres, Lebegue and Jacquet de La Guerre).

Also, it's relatively easy to remove watermarks like that from images with good image-editing software - like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.

[Boccaccio]

Well, people working in public libraries sometimes behave strangely when it comes to their personal interpretation of copyright and digital collections...

I never used these closed source graphic programs... can The Gimp do the same? And is there some way of doing this image processing automatically?

Concerning this particular piece, maybe it is a good idea to mail them about their mistake (not mentioning IMSLP). I know it is hard to find any email address on their webpage, but maybe you are lucky.

[Irishmaestro]

Hmmm, I would do, but I'm not having much luck. I speak no Italian at all (I've been trying to make my through on the basis of my French xD), and I think they'd probably prefer an e-mail in Italian... possibly?

[Boccaccio]

I fear I can't help as I don't speak Italian either. I noticed, however, that there is seemingly the possibility to download at least the older files without a watermark. So probably I will try to get everything downloaded I can get hands on, such that the clean files can be released later one after the other.

EDIT: It's really strange with this website... Some older files now have a watermark, some don't...

[Irishmaestro]

Oh excellent! How do you download the older files? Can I do it for the d'Anglebert stuff as well? I mean, judging from the fact that the thumbnails are there, it has to have been up there at some stage...

[Choralia]

I think they'd probably prefer an e-mail in Italian... possibly?

They have a contact page in English, so I presume that English may be acceptable:

http://www.museomusicabologna.it/staff_eng.htm

Anyway, if you prefer to try in Italian, I'm available to help.

Max

[Irishmaestro]

Actually, I noticed that there's a link at the bottom of the catalogue page for the d'Anglebert with an e-mail address asking that errors and such be pointed out. The address is avitolo@comune.bologna.it. Think it'd be worth emailing 'em?

[Boccaccio]

I think it's worth trying the email address given there... I mean in some sense you are helping some, not the other way around, so they should be willing to understand english

Concerning the old files, let's take http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/cmbm/i ... 6/V086.asp as an example. Taking a look at the picture names, we find that they are given by http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/cmbm/i ... 86_001.jpg and so on, so using curl, we get them easily as

Code: Select all

curl http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/cmbm/images/ripro/gaspari/_V086/V086_[001-031].jpg -o V086_#1.jpg

EDIT: But I fear at the moment we won't get d'Anglebert, as the files are really black.

[Irishmaestro]

Actually, Boccaccio, that link you gave is interesting, in that only the first two images load - the rest are black, just like the d'Anglebert! That's very odd! I'm definitely emailing them now! xD

[Boccaccio]

As I now have a complete list of all the pieces they currently offer on the internet, I decided to download everything I can get (still in progress). Should I upload the files somewhere else (zipped) such that everyone interested can download them, remove logos, combine them to a pdf and upload them at IMSLP? Should we make some kind of project out of this?

[Irishmaestro]

Good news! I happened to click on the Link in the post I made a few months ago, and the d'Anglebert images are up! Boccaccio, did you say you could download images without the Water-mark? If so, it'd make it much easier to make the d'Anglebert a bit more readable.

[Boccaccio]

Unfortunately, I found out that I cannot download the Bologna files without watermarks. So either you have to remove them manually or keep them in the files (which I did with some other uploads from there and nobody complained so far).

[Irishmaestro]

They're quite low quality anyway, in fact. Would be quite hard to get it up to the original size (which wouldn't have been particularly large anyway). I'll see what I can do viz. enlarging the images though. It's still a useful resource to have - and the (very important) Rules for Accompaniment aren't up on IMSLP as of now.