----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Many thanks to Deborah Barlow Smedstad for responding so promptly about the
AMICO initiative. Here, as requested, is the VRA-L posting on the launch
meeting in Los Angeles.
I'm sure many of us (esp academic types) would appreciate Deborah's take on
the paragraph below dealing with what (in the AAMD's opinion) constitutes a
university community from a licensing point of view. The generous
definition advanced below would make the eventual definition of licensing
protocols much easier than it usually is in the arena of academic licensing
of electronic publications and, if accurately described, is surely to be
applauded.
Max Marmor
***
Apologies for this delayed report on the AMICO meeting. Last Friday
Barbara Furbush and I - as stand-ins for Joseph Romano - did attend
the meeting in Los Angeles at which the launching of the Art Museum
Image Consortium (AMICO) was announced. It was an extremely
interesting affair, one of those rare meetings entirely worth
attending. At Joseph's request I am preparing a full report for the
VRA Board, which may later be posted at the VRA website. In addition,
AMICO promises to publish a report at its site (www.amn.org/amico/)
within the next few weeks.
The meeting was hosted by the Getty Information Institute and
conducted by Max Anderson and Mimi Gautieri of the Association of Art
Museum Directors (AAMD) and David Bearman and Jennifer Trant of
Archives and Museum Informatics. AAMD is an association of about 175
art museums in Canada, U.S., and Mexico. One of its sponsored programs
is the Art Museum Network (AMN). Max Anderson is AMN director and
describes it as a container for AAMD's ambitions re communication.
AMICO is one feature of AMD. It began last October with a decision by
the AAMD Board and was followed by an on-line discussion among 37 of
the AAMD members. Friday's launch was really a report on decisions and
agreements arrived at the previous day at a meeting of this group.
Briefly, AMICO is intended to move forward from the MESL pilot
project to an actual, concrete site licensing endeavor. It will be a
not-for-profit mechanism to provide site licenses for a "library" of
digital images and text contributed by member institutions. A
"library" because the end result is not conceived of as merely an
image bank but rather as a collection of "digital documentation" about
objects in museum collections. Images will be "wrapped" in textual
material and "packaged", museums and museum staffs after all being in
the business of creating and packaging content. The intent is to offer
"products" for licensing which will provide what is felt to be the
depth and breadth required for academic uses and users. It seems that
AMICO is not thinking of licensing only pre-packaged sets of images or
the entire library. Licensees probably will be able to select sets of
individual images, but at this stage at least AMICO appears to be
thinking only in terms of large sets numbering perhaps several
thousand. There will probably be multiple means for distribution.
Products may be shipped on fixed media for downloading, for instance,
or a campus might rely on using a product directly from the AMICO
server. Site licences apparently will be renewable annually. Once a
license expires the licensee cannot maintain a copy afterwards.
The big breakthrough regarding site licensing is that AMICO member
museums have agreed to trust the universities. AMICO will not impose
traditional concepts of space and place (i.e., defining site) but will
focus on users and uses instead. A university's self-definition will
define the site for purposes of the site license, and with certain
exclusions the university will designate its community of users.
Rather than impose security and access mechanisms and monitoring
systems, museums accept that universities already have policies and
procedures in place and will agree to rely on these and trust the
campus to enforce them. It is understood that part of the values of
universities may lead to "leakage" to non-acceptable uses. The list of
educational uses which AMICO specifically wishes to support include:
-- classroom display;
-- public display at professional conferences, university galleries,
and other curricularly defined activities;
-- use in student assignments including image manipulation in the
course of exploration.
The specific details on products offered, site license requirements,
image standards, data standards, etc. have still to be worked out, but
AMICO promises regular reports will be posted to its website.
I hope this summary is useful.
Loy Zimmerman
Slide Curator
California State University, Long Beach
562-985-4394 voice
562-985-1650 fax
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