On October 11, 2012, The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched MetPublications, a new online portal dedicated to distributing The Museum's rich publishing history. An amazing 643 exhibition and collection catalogues, Bulletins, and Journals are now online, available for anyone, anywhere to search their tables of content, author information, reviews, awards, and links to other, related bibliographies from The Museum's publishing arm. The inaugural publications date back to 1964, but The Museum has plans to eventually offer every publication from its founding (1870) to the present. Sounds too good to be true, right? But wait! There's more!
Of the 643 publications, you can read, search, and download -- in their entirety, for FREE -- 368 out-of-print titles. And of the 368, 140 of the out-of-print titles offer print-on-demand copies. (Perfect if someone used your treasured copy of American Pastels in The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a beer coaster and ruined it.) Another 272 titles are still in print and thus not fully available, however you are able to search their contents and use the Preview function on Google Books. When all else, and I do mean all else fails, MetPublications will hook you up with WorldCat to locate the nearest copy, either at a local library or one through which your library can arrange an Inter-Library Loan (a.k.a.: my best non-human friend ... excepting our dog, of course).
Finally, each publication is cross-indexed to other Museum resources online, including the excellent Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Connections, AND individual works from The Museum's collections that are featured in the publication. The whole MetPublications effort is, quite simply, a researcher's dream come true.
As a final bonus, I will mention two things. (1) These publications are very expensive to produce, print, and purchase. It has always struck me as a sad waste when they go out of print. With diligent searching, you may find them for resale, but then the price has escalated to some ridiculous figure. If a reprint is available, I'd much prefer to see its consumer cost go to the original publisher.
(2) These publications typically weigh a lot. It is not unusual for an exhibition catalogue to hit the 10 lb. threshold. Add up +/- one hundred (like me), and you've got anywhere from 500 lbs. to half a ton of weight sitting on one area of your living structure. That is enough for, say, a spouse in a bad mood to make loving remarks such as, "NO. MORE. BOOKS!" or "Why don't you go the animal shelter, adopt 17 cats, hit up the recycling center for bales of newspapers on the way home, and complete the 'hoarder' theme you've got going on over here. Honey." All I'm saying is that 368 PDF files weigh -- literally -- nothing. Spare yourself any aggravation that you can!
Huge, huge thanks to The Metropolitan Museum's Editorial and Digital Media departments' staffs for launching this valuable resource. If it sounds like I am gushing, I am ... and unapologetically. MetPublications is THAT magnificent.
Of the 643 publications, you can read, search, and download -- in their entirety, for FREE -- 368 out-of-print titles. And of the 368, 140 of the out-of-print titles offer print-on-demand copies. (Perfect if someone used your treasured copy of American Pastels in The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a beer coaster and ruined it.) Another 272 titles are still in print and thus not fully available, however you are able to search their contents and use the Preview function on Google Books. When all else, and I do mean all else fails, MetPublications will hook you up with WorldCat to locate the nearest copy, either at a local library or one through which your library can arrange an Inter-Library Loan (a.k.a.: my best non-human friend ... excepting our dog, of course).
Finally, each publication is cross-indexed to other Museum resources online, including the excellent Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Connections, AND individual works from The Museum's collections that are featured in the publication. The whole MetPublications effort is, quite simply, a researcher's dream come true.
As a final bonus, I will mention two things. (1) These publications are very expensive to produce, print, and purchase. It has always struck me as a sad waste when they go out of print. With diligent searching, you may find them for resale, but then the price has escalated to some ridiculous figure. If a reprint is available, I'd much prefer to see its consumer cost go to the original publisher.
(2) These publications typically weigh a lot. It is not unusual for an exhibition catalogue to hit the 10 lb. threshold. Add up +/- one hundred (like me), and you've got anywhere from 500 lbs. to half a ton of weight sitting on one area of your living structure. That is enough for, say, a spouse in a bad mood to make loving remarks such as, "NO. MORE. BOOKS!" or "Why don't you go the animal shelter, adopt 17 cats, hit up the recycling center for bales of newspapers on the way home, and complete the 'hoarder' theme you've got going on over here. Honey." All I'm saying is that 368 PDF files weigh -- literally -- nothing. Spare yourself any aggravation that you can!
Huge, huge thanks to The Metropolitan Museum's Editorial and Digital Media departments' staffs for launching this valuable resource. If it sounds like I am gushing, I am ... and unapologetically. MetPublications is THAT magnificent.
Comments
Wow, that is pretty amazing! Makes me wish I was a student again. With the latest iPad.
You crack me up with your description of the spouse in a bad mood! He’s obviously a philistine. But seriously, maybe you need to spread the books around the house so they don’t compromise all the joists in one location. I’m sure the spouse would love to see that!
Oh, Val … if you could see our home! The other end of the room is full of his architecture books, and do not get me started on his hoard of National Geographic magazines. The middle of this same (large) room is crammed with our gardening books and Audubon field guides. The kitchen is overflowing with cookbooks, the upstairs is groaning with fiction and childhood classics, and there are two sets of encyclopaedias on the landing. We are in DIRE need of some sort of twelve-step program for bibliophiles.
Shelley, your house sounds so much like mine!
I could build walls with books!