Dear ARLIS Colleagues, (also posted to VRA-L, so I apologize if this a redundant message)
A challenge for institutions of higher education is the
collection, storage, retrieval and packaging of digital images
for meaningful use in teaching and learning. James Madison
University has developed an application that helps teachers in
the arts and humanities meet this challenge.
James Madison University is pleased to announce that the Madison
DIDİ, an online image database and multimedia teaching tool,
will be available to users in the academic community, free of
charge. The move to distribute this application for free, as
opposed to its commercialization, is consistent with the service
and educational mission of James Madison University. Since the
beginning of this project in 1996, it has been the goal of
faculty and staff at James Madison University to share this
innovative and effective teaching tool with the broader academic
community.
The Madison DIDİ is made available as free software, not
freeware or open source software. We anticipate that users will
be able to download and install the full system by September 30,
2001. Information about current system features and technical
specifications and system demonstrations are available at:
http://cit.jmu.edu/mdidinfo
We respectfully request that only one user per institution or group
acquire the product.
The license agreement can be viewed during product installation.
Read this agreement carefully. Content for the system must be
provided by the user. For example, James Madison University
incorporates a variety of image content and associated data into
its MDIDİ from faculty-owned collections, institutionally-owned
collections, commercial and licensed image libraries, including AMICO
and Davis Art Slides. James Madison University continues to develop
the Madison DIDİ for its faculty, staff and students. The
product will be updated regularly and those updates will be made
available online.
Initially, a product will be provided that runs on an Microsoft
Access database. James Madison University will move to a
Microsoft SQL Server database in the coming academic year. After
that migration has been thoroughly tested at JMU, the Madison
DIDİ, with the Microsoft SQL Server database will be available
for free as well.
We are in the early stages of expanded product development. New
tools are being developed each semester and will be described
and eventually available at the MDIDİ website. Users can request
to participate in the MDID Users Group Discussion list via this
website as well.
Though no technical support is provided on the product, we
encourage you to participate in mailing list discussions.
Technical staff at JMU will participate in this user group.
Periodically, users will be surveyed to assess product usage.
Current assessment data is available at the MDID website.
Specific institutions may be contacted to request participation
in student assessment.
Additional information can be obtained by contacting [log in to unmask]
Hope everyone is having a great day.
Sincerely,
Tina
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Christina B. Updike School of Art and Art History
Visual Resources Specialist MSC 7101
540-568-6588, FAX 540-568-6598 James Madison University
[log in to unmask] Harrisonburg, VA 22807
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[log in to unmask]
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