[A2k] Re: For the first time in Switzerland: Open access to a newspaper's archives

[Claude Almansi]

Good morning,

I joined this list after receiving Dr Abdel Latif's message about the
Journal de Gen=C3=A8ve archives through a forward.

As ti:


> From: "Ahmed Abdel Latif"
> Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:29:13 +0100
>
> An article appeared in the french speaking swiss newspaper le Temps, indi=
cating that the entire archives of the local Journal de Geneve which existe=
d from 1826 to 1998 will be availabe through open access at le Temps's webs=
ite.
>
> http://www.letemps.ch/template/laUne.asp?page=3D2&article=3D246056
>
>
> Premi=C3=A8re suisse: les archives d'un journal en libre acc=C3=A8s sur l=
e Net

This is a rather idiolectic use of the phrase libre acc=C3=A8s / open
access. In <http://www.letemps.ch/template/laUne.asp?page=3D2&article=3D246=
056>,
there is no link to the Journal de Gen=C3=A8ve (JdG) archives themselves,
but one to a vademecum to the archives,
<http://www.letemps.ch/custom/imagesSpecial/Edition3348/Rubrique2/ArticleId=
246056/8654.pdf>.
 7675Ko  because it is a huge image PDF that excludes blind people and
is unwieldy for everybody, whereas the same info could have been
conveyed in a much more usable way in a much smaller textual pdf.

Nevertheless, that vademecum does give the link to the JdG archives
<http://www.letempsarchives.ch> and it contains an explanatory text by
Nicolas Dufour: even thought they made 3 versions when they scanned
the
material: text, PDF and image, the articles retrieved from the archive
appear as images again. The text version remains hidden, and only
serves to make the search engine work.
Mr Dufour also explains that you can save the articles that are in the
public domain to your computer as an image, while the others will get
"only partially copied on the hard disk".

Considering that:

> (...)
> Ce projet pilote est le fruit d'un partenariat entre la Biblioth=C3=A8que=
 nationale, la Biblioth=C3=A8que cantonale de Gen=C3=A8ve et Le Temps, d=C3=
=A9positaires des trois collections int=C3=A9grales du Journal de Gen=C3=A8=
ve. Il a =C3=A9t=C3=A9 rendu possible gr=C3=A2ce au soutien de m=C3=A9c=C3=
=A8nes, dans le cadre d'un partenariat public-priv=C3=A9 de type in=C3=A9di=
t.

- it is odd that the articles can only be retrieved and saved
(partially saved) as images excluding blind people, because
Switzerland has a law and ordinance for the removal of barriers to
people with disabilities: the latter specifies that federal organs
must remove barriers to web content, and the National library has
shown due concern in respecting this in choosing a PDF format for its
materials on other occasions. Moreover, in its posistion paper
concerning the last revision of the Swiss copyright law, the Swiss
Association of libraries and librarians had explcitly said that
technical copyright protection measures, while understandable for
music and video, should not be enforced for literary works  (see
<http://www.ige.ch/f/jurinfo/documents/j10301018f.pdf>, in French,
another image PDF, unfortunately).

So as to:
>
> Marie-Christine Doffey, directrice de la Biblioth=C3=A8que nationale, esp=
=C3=A8re que cette d=C3=A9marche donnera un acc=C3=A8s =C3=A0 des usagers p=
lut=C3=B4t jeunes, mais aussi aux chercheurs et aux enseignants.

Sure: researchers and teachers can put the saved image (in the case of
an article in the public domain) or the screenshot of an article (for
the other articles) through an Optical Character Recognition program
in order to get a usable text version. That's impossible for blind
people, for whom the access to a text version is absolutely necessary.

And why force people to use this work-around rather than offer the
existing but hidden text version used by the search engine anyway? All
published works come under copyright laws automatically anyway. For
users not aware of that, there could be a link to a legal notice
explaining about copyright duration etc. in the template of the
articles. Offering the text version would probably have been cheaper
than using the Olive Software solution mentioned by Mr Dufour in the
Vademecum.

There seem to be other digital restrictions on the access to the JdG
archives: after a few searches (or is it after a certain lapse of
time?), you get a "Service unavailable" notice. But I'll let tech
competent people examine how that feature works.

As to:

> Ce projet s'inscrit dans la strat=C3=A9gie de d=C3=A9veloppement num=C3=
=A9rique du Temps, qui verra bient=C3=B4t le lancement d'un site r=C3=A9nov=
=C3=A9 et la num=C3=A9risation des archives de la Gazette de Lausanne et du=
 Nouveau Quotidien. D'autres journaux suisses suivront la m=C3=AAme voie, d=
ans le cadre d'un accord global entre la Biblioth=C3=A8que nationale et les=
 =C3=A9diteurs.
>

Let's hope that "strategy of digital development" is flexible and that
le Temps will consider offering the text version as well. If not to
all users, at least to blind people. In Ticino, where online versions
of the 3 local dailies are a nightmare of inusability and
inaccessibility, they have an agreement with UNITAS (the Swiss Italian
branch of the Swiss federation of blind people) by which blind UNITAS
members can access the text-only version.

Best

Claude Almansi
http://www.webmultimediale.org/almansi/