----------------------------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 [log in to unmask]