New York State Archives for Genealogists -- Part Two

Libraries and archives are realizing that digitization fulfills severals of their main objectives including preservation and making their collections available for research and study. The New York State Archives, like many other repositories, creates an income stream from selling copies of the digitized documents. Here is a description of the New York Archives collections from the website:

The New York State Archives' Digital Collections provides access to photographs, textual records, artifacts, government documents, manuscripts, and other materials. Most items come from the holdings of the New York State Archives, but this collection also includes material from the New York State Museum, State Library, and project partners across New York State. 

If you have questions about our holdings, or if you would like to request copies of State Archives materials, please contact our reference desk at ARCHREF@nysed.gov or 518-474-8955.

When any collection of documents is digitized, there is always a background issue of copyright protection for some or all of the items. A genealogical researcher needs to have a general knowledge of the categories of copyright restrictions that apply in the countries where the researcher intends to copy documents. In the United States, the copyright laws are unclear and very complex. A good summary of the laws is available online from Cornell University's website, "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States." This summary is updated each year and it a good idea to review the summary from time to time to refresh your memory of the overall restrictions and to become aware of any new changes to the law. Here is the statement made by the New York Archives concerning the copyright status of their online collections:

Copyright and Use Statement

The Office of Cultural Education, NYS Department of Education, is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes. Please read the following terms of use, as they will guide the appropriate use of the materials found in this resource. 

While every effort has been made to select and present material in the public domain, some materials, particularly State Agency records, may be protected by the copyright laws. The nature of these materials may make copyright difficult or impossible to determine. When known, information on permissions is noted. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for securing any necessary permission ultimately rests with the user. 

Please note: This website contains high quality images from the New York State Archives, New York State Library, and New York State Museum. If you wish to receive high quality copies of images from the other repositories represented, you must request reproduction from the institution listed for each record. 

Credit Line: Material on this website is drawn from the resources of the New York State Archives, New York State Library, New York State Museum, and a variety of project partners. Please carefully check each image, text, or other material for the appropriate credit line. 

The Office of Cultural Education is eager to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified so that appropriate information may be provided in the future. Please contact us at archinfo@nysed.gov.

This is a very fair and reasonable statement of the possible issues arising from copying items online. One import statement is the need to provide attribution for anything copied that is not specifically noted to be in the public domain. However, for research purposes, genealogists should not only be aware of the need for attribution but should also be providing detailed and complete citations for each record used for making historical conclusions. We should all be providing a clear explanation of our conclusions and providing complete and very adequate references or citations to the place where the records or documents can be viewed or obtained. 

In short, failure to give attribution is not simply a matter of courtesy, it can be part of the copyright law of the country. Items in the public domain are exempt from this requirement, but all other materials copied should be carefully cited according to the particular requirements of the originator of the work. 

Going back to the digital collections online from the New York State Archives, they have several ways to search their collections: Browsing by Collections, by Places, by Repositories or by State Agencies. 

Stay tuned for a more detailed analysis of the contents in the next post in this series.

You can find the first post in this series here:

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/03/new-york-state-archives-for.html