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Have more questions? Contact Scholarly Communication and Publishing at scpub@library.illinois.edu for more information and guidance or visit our website.
Scholarly Communication and Publishing
Media in Scalar
Media is an integral part of Scalar. Images, audio, and videos are all supported in Scalar and adding these various types of media to your page is done through links. You simply select the text you want to associate with the media and attach it.
Scalar does not use embedded code like you would use when adding media (like a YouTube video) to a blog post. The media you see in Scalar is not housed in Scalar. Instead, Scalar imports and stores the metadata associated with that media. As an author, you can upload your own media, but only if it does not exceed 2MB.
If your media files are housed on your private server you can simply link those files in your Scalar book. Scalar is affiliated with various media sources such as Critical Commons, Hypercities, Internet Archive, USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, Cuban Theater Digital Archive and Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL).
Other possible Scalar accessible media outlets (NON-AFFILIATED) Prezi, SoundCloud, Vimeo, and YouTube. Also, media can be imported from other Scalar books that to which you have author access. **Note: Be careful of "link-rot" when relying on websites not directly affiliated with Scalar.
Affiliated Archives
Scalar has an official relationship with certain online archives. These archives are called "affiliate" or "partner" archives. These sites allow you to link the content in their collections directly to your Scalar book. For some of these archives, you will need to create an account.
The importer for your desirerd archive will appear and allow you to browse the archive. You can preview individual files by selecting Preview, on the right. You can select more than one media file at a time by clicking their associated check boxes and then by clicking Import Selected Media.
- Critical CommonsThis site is a "YouTube for scholars." It is best to wait 30 minutes before trying to import media that has recently been uploaded to Creative Commons.
- Cuban Theater Digital Archive (CTDA)This is a community repository for Cuban theater and performance research, teaching, and learning materials.
- Internet ArchiveThis is a non-profit digital library that provides access to various collections of digitized materials. i.e. websites, music, moving images, and books
- Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL)In this archive, you will find a combination of little-known cultural documents from small archives that have been inaccessible to scholars and researchers. **Note: this media cannot be view on iOS devices at this time
- HyperCitiesThis archive allows you to travel back in time and view layers of city spaces in an "interactive, hypermedia environment." **Note: this media cannot be viewed on iOS devices at this time
- Shoah Foundation VHA OnlineThis archive, established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, is home to a collection of 52,000 oral testimonies of Holocaust survivors. This site has been made available to the public, however if you want to import clips from the larger collection, you must be on the partner site and you must choose the Shoah Foundation VHA Online (partner site) option from the Affiliated Archives drop-down window.
Copyright Advisory
When gathering material for your digital exhibit, it is important to be aware of copyright and licensing restrictions.
If an image or text is taken from an electronic database (e.g. ARTStor) or a website owned by an organization (e.g. The Getty, DPLA), there are often restrictions on how you can re-use and display these materials. Some material might even be in the public domain—books, images, scores, etc. published pre-1924—but the holding institution can still apply licenses and restrictions.
Learn more from the Copyright Reference Guide and Copyright and Digitization of Library Materials or set up a consultation with the Copyright Librarian.