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The Research Libraries Group (www.rlg.org/) is launching an
initiative to improve access to information about works of art,
architecture, visual culture, and material culture found in museums,
historical societies, and other cultural heritage institutions. The
result will be a web-accessible database of object records linked to
visual images and, in some cases, associated texts.
During the first phase of the initiative RLG will load data drawn
from several sources, including RLG's REACH Project
(www.rlg.org/reach.html), the Getty's Provenance Index
(www.ahip.getty.edu/gii/prov.html), and the VISION Project for
shared visual resources records (www.rlg.org/pr/9711vis.html) a
joint effort of RLG and the Visual Resources Association with
support from the Getty Information Institute (www.gii.getty.edu/).
Researchers using the new database will benefit from the enhanced
searching capability that RLG is developing in Eureka, RLG's
web-based search engine. "Enhanced searching" will utilize two
Getty Information Institute vocabularies -- the Art & Architecture
Thesaurus and the Union List of Artist Names -- to facilitate
searching across records that contain varying versions of terms or
names.
REACH Project
The REACH Project (www.rlg.org/reach.html) is an effort to create a
testbed database of museum object records. The goal is to export
existing machine-readable data from heterogeneous museum collection
management systems and analyze the research value of the resulting
database when researchers use a single interface to search the
database in conjunction with RLG's other resources, including
bibliographic and archival records in RLIN, auction catalog records
in the SCIPIO database, finding aids, plus abstracting and indexing
tools such as the Bibliography of the History of Art, and
Anthropological Literature.
VISION Project
The VISION Project for shared visual resources records
(www.rlg.org/pr/9711vis.html) is a joint effort of RLG and the
Visual Resources Association with support from the Getty Information
Institute (www.gii.getty.edu/). This effort is designed to bring
more visual resources information online; promulgate and test the
use of standards for creating and sharing such information; and
evaluate the new data's value in the context of existing RLG
research information databases. VISION and REACH records will both
go into the new RLG union catalog for museum objects and image
records, accessible through the Web.
ARCHES
RLG's server for digital collections, called ARCHES
(www.rlg.org/demo/webdoc.html), provides a "home" for digitized
images and texts that may accompany object records in the new
database. The ARCHES infrastructure supports links between
descriptive (cataloging) records, mid-level metadata (such as
archival finding aids), and whole digitized information objects
(such as articles and visual images) wherever they may reside. This
infrastructure includes navigational tools plus a full suite of
access control and management functions, which ensure that rights
holders and other value-added providers can restrict and/or charge
for the use of their documents, if necessary.
AMICO
RLG's new resource for art and artifact information may also be
enhanced by data, texts, and images coming from AMICO, the Art
Museum Image Consortium (www.amn.org/AMICO/). Discussions are
currently underway between RLG and AMICO concerning a test-bed
project that will evaluate distribution and collective licensing of
museum digital collections in the higher educational community.
RLG/CIMI collaboration
Throughout the process of developing this new service for its users
RLG will be working closely with CIMI, the Consortium for the
Interchange of Museum Information (www.cimi.org/). CIMI's mission
is to bring an open standards-based approach to the management and
delivery of museum information. RLG is a founding member of
CIMI.
For further information, contact:
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Katharine Martinez
Program Officer, New Digital Services : Voice: 650 691 2231
Research Libraries Group, Inc. : FAX: 650 964 0943
1200 Villa Street : Web: http://www.rlg.org
Mountain View, CA 94041-1100 USA : E-mail: [log in to unmask] *
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