Ad*Access

Ad*Access is a project of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University. It���s an image database of over 7000 U.S. and Canadian ads scanning more than 40 years, from 1911 to 1955. Five major categories of products are represented: beauty and hygiene; radio; television; transportation; and World War II propaganda. The ads primarily come from magazines and newspapers.

Collection Principles: A link to Ad*Access���s collection principles is clearly placed in a box right on the homepage. The principles state clearly that Ad*Access comprises only a selection of the highlights of the print collection: ���Rather than include just a few ads on many topics, we elected to digitize���thousands of ads that relate to one of five main categories���Each of these categories is one we know attracts a lot of research interest, and most of the also reflect major developments in American society, culture, business, and technology.��� I think this approach is a wise one, even for an institution that likely has more resources at its disposal for digital projects than some other, less prestigious universities.

Most of the ads are not yet in the public domain, and the access to the collection is governed by the guidelines of fair use. For commercial use, the center requires that the user obtain permission from the current copyright holder as well as the Hartman Center, and agree to acknowledge the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

Its FAQ page is fantastic, answering such questions as how to obtain a non-electronic copy of one of the ads (they are for sale, and the staff charges as well for extended research assistance) and even how to cite images found in the collection.

Object Characteristics & Metadata: Each image has the option of being displayed and downloaded in either its medium and large size. The images are JPEG, usually around 108kb. The original colors have been preserved as much as possible.

The details tag for each image includes descriptive and administrative metadata on the following fields: company; product; publication; medium; year; target audience (e.g., consumer, doctor, etc.); subject (e.g. beauty and hygiene���dental supplies); item number; and copyright. The center appears to be doing as much as possible to make access ��� and rediscovery ��� possible. For example, on each image page there is a ���bookmark this��� tag, with links to more than a dozen social networking/organizing websites. The search field also supports wildcard searching.

There is a search field running along the top that will search all of Duke���s digital collections. A search on ���toothpaste��� brought up 147 hits, only 7 of which were part of Ad*Access. (The majority was found within Duke���s collection entitled ���Medicine & Madison Avenue.���) From these results the user could choose subsets within these, by company, product, year, or subject (such as children���s toothpaste or toothpaste coupons).

For each of the five categories, there are research guides (a.k.a. finding aids) and a history available. The histories are meant to place the images in a historical and cultural context.

Audience: As mentioned earlier, the center believes, and I think rightly so, that the analysis of advertising offers meaningful insight into the values and belief systems of a certain time and place. Such an image collection would prove useful for serious scholars and researchers as well as the numerous high school students and undergrads taking classes in business, advertising, commercial arts, communications, American studies, and sociology, just to name a few. Advertising professionals would also find it useful, as well as people who were interested in tracking the advertising trends of a certain company or product.

On a personal note, in my experience working reference at PCL, the request for historical advertisements is a very common one, and this resource ��� which was unknown to me before finding it for this blog entry ��� is one that I will definitely refer students to in the future.