----------------------------Original message---------------------------- This message is being cross-posted to VRA-L and ARLIS-L, the LAUC (Librarians' Association UC Berkeley), the College of Environmental Design email lists, and GARLIC (gallery of art research libraries in California). SPIRO, the image database for UC Berkeley's Architecture Slide Library, has many new features. If you have SPIRO bookmarked or hot-listed on your web browser, please reload it now. If you do not have SPIRO bookmarked but would like to use it, go to the Architecture Slide Library's home page at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ARCH/ Once there, click on SPIRO. SPIRO now has 20,000 images from 1,750 books, 225 periodical titles, 400 donors, and 25 vendors. Digital permissions have been obtained from most vendors and donors: remaining permissions are in progress. The query form now permits searching by six data fields: locations, personal names ( which include corporate names), object title, subject terms, image id, and and source abbreviation. Below the query forms portion of the SPIRO page are instructions. Access to alphabetical lists of Personal Names, Building and Object Names, Locations, Subject Terms, and Sources is provided. You can now search through these lists to learn the correct form of data that actually in use in the database. In the next few weeks or months, we would appreciate hearing from those of you who have used our cataloging, subject terms, source information, etc. We have a few more changes in the works, but they are relatively minor corrections to program that generates punctuation and layout of data. Comments, suggestions, and corrections are always welcome. Those of you on the UC Berkeley electronic domain can view thumbnails and larger resolution image files: those off the UC Berkeley electronic domain can only view thumbnail images. Copyright and CONFU: Please be advised that this image database could eventually be considered illegal if the proposed CONFU guidelines for Digital Images Archives are widely endorsed and adopted by Congress. There are three or four issues in the guidelines that would make SPIRO illegal, depending on how you interpret language in the CONFU guidelines. Issues are the interpretation of "lawful maybe morely aquired images", "spontaneous use", "password protected" and Some of the ihe requirement to secure written permission from publishers, who in 99% of the cases will have to deny permission because publishers do not own the rights to images in the books they publish. American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, Society of American Archivists, and Visual Resources Association have all noted to not endorse these guidelines. College Art Association and Art Libraries Society have not yet votedv but are reported to be leaning heavily toward non-endoresement. Most unfortunately, Special Libraries Association has endorsed the guidelines. The Architecture Slide Library staff (myself; photographer and digital master Steven Brooks; Claire Dannenbaum, library assistant extraordinare) extend thanks and gratitude to Randy Ballew, Senior Programmer, and Susan Stone, both of UC Berkeley's Museum Informatics Project for their attention and committment to the SPIRO project. Maryly Snow Librarian UC Berkeley Architecture Slide Library [log in to unmask]