Topic: The Glass Study - A new web resource from Frank Andrews

[Frank]

announcing the opening of http://www.glass-study.com/ a subscriber site with an annual membership of 30 Euros.

What is it about?
This first stage is building a library of reference material. Out-of-copyright - fully digitised, In-copyright - indexed. This material has had discovered spelling mistakes corrected, other matters have been annotated within the text. So not a slavish reproduction.

All images have been fully restored and cleaned at 600 dpi but those on the site are smaller versions, the full size versions are intended for use by members in their books or websites.

This allows full text searching of the material (Note that the search identifies the source document and once opened you need to use your browser search facility to get to the actual text)
If I can work full time at this, I expect it will take about 5 years to upload my entire library which includes unique as well as very rare material. Books, glass company material, original catalogues, trade catalogues.

Additional facilities will be added after the library is completed.

Things to see
ENGLISH - about 500 pages
Cameo Incrustation (Indexed) nominally
Chance Glass Works c1871 (Extract) 4 pages
Hoppus Practical Measurer 1893 (Extract)
Pottery Gazette & Glass Trade Review - January 1950
The Red Star Glass-Works Co. Belgium
China and Glass RED BOOK 1951
Field, Kate The Drama of Glass c1895 Libbey Glass
Nailsea Glass 1911 & 1920 articles.
Miscellaneous articles and snippets from various sources.

GERMAN - about 450 pages
Adressbuch Deutschlands Glasindustrie 1925 420 pages
Stern-Glashütte Actiengesellschaft 42 pages

FRENCH - about 40 pages
Verreries de l’Étoile Belgique

SPANISH - about 40 pages
Fábricas de la Estrella Roja Belgica

Target Audience
Glass writers, advanced collectors, historians, anyone who wants to support the effort.
An understanding of the limitations of trade directories and other original text is needed to fully benefit. All are snaphots in time and may include errors.
The benefit is that the community can share any discovered errors and can quickly locate references. It is often advisable to check against the original source before basing any major decisions on such works.

Because of the way it is structured, original page references are easily given (Some of the first texts uploaded were not paginated in this way, but those will be updated in due course)

How it works
The concept is non-profit making, see the Terms & Conditions (Bottom of user menu once you have signed in). The intention is to fund my full time effort at digitising the material with any surplus funds being diverted to a preservation fund that I hope to turn into a charity. This is perhaps ambitious and would need at least 400 members to work. Ultimately it is hoped to make the library a free resource.

It is possible for others to get involved in filling the library.

[Pip]

Well done Frank :clap: although I'm not a glass writer, advanced collector or historian I'd still like to support your venture and I'm sure there will be plenty even for little old me in there so will join up shortly.

[Frank]

Thanks, Pip, yes there are interesting reads there for sure. I am currently preparing a 1958 Jobling in house journal which has the most amazing first and second hand accounts of life in their glassworks.

The problem with the type of material included is that it is snapshot's in time and this can be misleading when taken out of that context. Whereas a completed book, such as Ivo's fact file for example, has investigated the wider story and can present more fully rounded material.

[Pinkspoons]

Oh, that reminds me - I never finished scanning in those glass articles for you! You'll have to remind me which bits I sent because it was a whole computer ago for me. Also, I have one or two other articles that may be of some interest - I'll dig 'em out of storage when I get chance.

[Frank]

I found some bits on Holmegaard for you. But should never rush these things or my organisation falls apart 

[Heidimin]

Great to see this up and running, Frank. It looks set to become an invaluable resource.

One question/ suggestion: will you e-mail users to alert them to new content as it is added?

[Frank]

I can use the RSS thingy, but unsure exactly how it works - but as you ask I will investigate the options for doing this. The plan is to spend around 50 hours per week converting material for the study and 8 hours on the Zoo. Scotland's Glass is relegated to hobby time but I hope to manage 8 hours a week on that too. In practise those are likely to be maximums although I exceeded that in the first period. It is also dependant on bringing in sufficient income to survive too. I expect it to take me 5 years to convert the presently available material.

[Frank]

The past year has proved an embarrassment for me with the subscription sites! Moving countries proved to be a much more daunting challenge this time than with previous experiences - the addition of our wonderful daughter while in Holland having an impact!

Be that as it may, Glass Study subscriptions have not yet become annual so anyone joining gets open ended subscriptions for the time being. The Glass Zoo did have annual subscriptions but as I ended up taking most of the year out will extend all subscriptions by one year.

I remain committed to these ventures but over the past few months have had to concentrate time between building work on upgrading Scotland's Glass and preparations for the 2010 Anniversary in Scotland.

2010 should see a resurgence of activity on the other sites (all of which need their software upgraded too).

So anyone feeling disappointed please accept my apologies. In the near future I will be making an important announcement about the purpose of the subscriptions.

If you want to know a little about the building work, my blog has also suffered from the time economics LINK