AMICO Press Release
November 15, 2001

Statewide offering of The AMICO LibraryTM through Agreement with Nylink

AMICO Headquarters; Pittsburgh, PA

The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) and Nylink have entered into a
cooperative purchasing agreement to make The AMICO LibraryTM available to
Nylink’s membership at competitive rates.  The AMICO Library will be available
for subscription via two distributor options, H.W. Wilson
(http://www.hwwilson.com) or VTLS (http://www.vtls.com).  A preview trial
period
of The AMICO Library will be in effect Nov. 15th through Dec. 31st, 2001; then,
subscriptions will begin Jan. 1st, 2002.  Full Nylink members and cooperative
purchasing participants should visit
http://www.nylink.suny.edu/coop/coop.htm to
learn more and sign up for the free trial.  Nylink is a diverse membership
organization of over 350 institutions in New York state and the surrounding
region.  The institutional diversity that will now come into contact with The
AMICO Library furthers AMICO’s goal of wide delivery matched to varied user
needs. 

Jennifer Trant, AMICO’s Executive Director, declared, “This is a landmark
agreement for AMICO.  Not only do we now have exposure to a wide-ranging mix of
potential AMICO Library subscribers, we get to introduce two of our new
distributors and secure a relationship with Nylink.  Organizations like Nylink
provide excellent opportunities for AMICO to broaden our reach beyond the
higher educational level in which we have already made in-roads and gain
recognition as a resource with applicability for K-12 schools and public
libraries, as well.”  Mary-Alice Lynch, Executive Director of Nylink, adds,
“Providing access to The AMICO Library via our cooperative purchasing agreement
is a welcome addition to the current offerings that Nylink makes available.  We
feel that making strong, well-documented visual materials available to our
members is important for curricular multiplicity and users’ education in visual
literacy.”

About Nylink
Nylink, established in 1973 as The SUNY/OCLC Network, is a not-for-profit
membership organization providing services to libraries throughout New York
State and beyond.  As one of 16 regional OCLC (Online Computer Library
Center)-affiliated networks, Nylink provides user support and training for OCLC
products and services to its member libraries. Additionally, Nylink provides
training, support and consulting services for libraries on a broad range of
technology-related issues, and facilitates group purchasing opportunities to
help libraries obtain cost-effective alternatives to electronic information.
All libraries and library-related organizations in the state of New York are
eligible for Nylink membership.Nylink’s goal continues to be to provide our
members with the information, training and support they need. 

Approximately 350 institutions, representing more than 700 academic, special,
government, law, medical, public, school and non-profit libraries, and library
systems, are Nylink members. Depending on the needs of your library, and the
services you choose, Nylink offers a range of membership categories. Nylink
members are encouraged to advise both the Network and OCLC, and to have a voice
in Network planning and decision making. Full members of Nylink have the
opportunity to become involved with its governance, and to participate in
Nylink Advisory Groups and Nylink Council. Nylink is administered through the
Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the State
University of New York.

About AMICO
The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) is an independent non-profit
corporation with 501 (c) 3 designation from the IRS.  Founded in 1997 with 23
Members, the Consortium today is made up of over 30 major museums in the United
States and Canada.  It’s an innovative collaboration  not seen before in
museums  that shares, shapes, and standardizes digital information regarding
museum collections and enables its educational use.  Membership is open to any
institution with a collection of art.

AMICO Members make annual contributions of multimedia documentation of works in
their museums’ collections.  This is regularly compiled and made available as
The AMICO Library to universities, colleges, schools, and public libraries. 
The 2001-2002 edition of The AMICO Library documents approximately 78,000
different works of art, from prehistoric goddess figures to contemporary
installations.  More than simply an image database, works in The AMICO Library
are fully documented and may also include curatorial text about the artwork,
detailed provenance information, multiple views of the work itself, and other
related multimedia.  “Subscribers find The AMICO Library valuable because it
combines the immediacy and accessibility of the Web with the persistence and
academic weight of traditional library reference sources,” states Ms. Trant.

The AMICO Library is accessible over secure networks to institutional
subscribers including universities, colleges, libraries, schools, and museums,
and now serves over 1.5 million users on four continents, including faculty,
students, teachers, staff, and researchers.  Educational institutions may
subscribe to The AMICO Library by contacting one of its distributors.  These
include the Research Libraries Group (RLG), the Ohio Library and Information
Network (OhioLINK), H.W. Wilson, SCRAN, and VTLS.  Potential subscribers may
preview a Thumbnail Catalog of the AMICO Library and get further information at
http://www.amico.org. 

Contact Information:
AMICO       
Kelly Richmond 
Communications Director  
Art Museum Image Consortium      
Phone: +1 412 422 8533   
Email: [log in to unmask]   
Web: http://www.amico.org

Nylink
Jen Stelling 
Products and Services Librarian
Email: [log in to unmask]
OR
Tatiana Sahm 
Products and Services Librarian 
Email: [log in to unmask]
Nylink 
Phone: 518-443-5444 or 1-800-342-3353
Web: http://www.nylink.suny.edu

-------------------------
Kelly Richmond
Communications Director
Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO)
2008 Murray Ave, Suite D
Pittsburgh, PA  15217  USA
phone: +1 412 422 8533
fax: +1 412 422 8594
http://www.amico.org
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