----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear colleagues:
I am responding to Susan Clarke's suggestion that the responses to my
inquiry be posted to the list. All of the replies so far have been
thoughtful and comprehensive. They will be most helpful. I am including
my inquiry at the beginning.
At 05:29 PM 5/5/99 -0400, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear colleagues:
I would be grateful to hear from anyone who has participated in the
delivery of digitized images for instructional use. The President of the
school would like to see us migrate away from slides, and I would like to
be able to provide a comprehensive set of questions to assist in
evaluating our readiness for the idea. She is in particular recommending
the Amico database. My preliminary questions are "How many of the Amico
images dovetail with those in standard art and design history texts? To
what extent are the design arts represented in the database? What
percentage of the database contains images of architectural interiors?
What are the startup costs for the delivery of the images into the
classroom? How flexible is the arrangement of the images for
instructional use?"
I am going to pursue a free trial period for evaluation and will also
post this inquiry to the VRA listserv.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
--Paul Glassman, Librarian
New York School of Interior Design
170 East 70th Street
New York, New York 10021
(212) 472-1500 x216; FAX (212) 472-8175; e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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From: "Margaret N. Webster" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 09:55:58 -0400
Subject: Re: Digitized images for instructional use
Paul,
I recommend looking at the MESL report--Delivering Digital Images and
Images Online plus Howard Besser's Mellon Study report: The Cost of
Digital Image Distribution: The Social and Economic Implications of the
Production, Distribution, and Usage of Image Data
(http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon/).
Cornell participated in MESL and has chose not to participate with Amico.
Our experience is that consortia such as Amico provide lots of images but
not necessarily those you want to use for instructional purposes. They
make their choices without real consultation with those in higher
education
who might use material in digital form for instructional purposes.
Furthermore, it became clear at Howard Besser's session at VRA in LA that
Amico is beginning to realize that the real market (i.e., the $$$) for
projects such as Amico is probably at the K-12 level and in regional
consortia such as OhioLink rather than by licensing to individual
institutions of higher learning. The Making of America project reached
the
same conclusion.
That said, if the images Amico (or any other consortium) provides are
what
you want at a price you are willing to pay on an annual fee basis, then
this might be a viable option. You will need to consider the cost of
providing reliable support service to faculty members who will need to
become comfortable with ever changing technology. You will also need to
consider the cost of equipping and maintaining classrooms, computer labs,
etc. In Howard Besser's report there is a chapter authored by Joanne
Miller titled "The Cost of Distributing Analog Images by University Slide
Libraries" which compares the cost of maintaining a traditional slide
library vs providing images online.
My own guess is that for the time being, at least, both approaches will
be
necessary.
Margaret N. Webster
Visual Resources Facility
College of Architecture, Art & Planning
B-56 Sibley Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 255-3300
EMail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.aap.cornell.edu/resrce/vrf/
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From: [log in to unmask]
We are doing projects at our library for courses and everybody got used
to
this kind of resources. The students asked now that all courses will use
th
this kind of use to view images.
the url : http://www-lib.haifa.ac.il/www/art/course_material.html
(all kind of projects using images).
I am happy to help.
Ora Zehavi, Media
Library, University of Haifa, Israel
[log in to unmask]
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From: Dana Beth <[log in to unmask]>
To: Paul Glassman <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 11:38:37 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
Subject: Re: Digitized images for instructional use
Paul: We have been participating in the AMICO testbed over the past year.
I can make a few comments.
AMICO has great promise -- it's a start. However, even though the
database
which will be offered next year will probably be about twice the size of
the ca. 20,000-object database we were working with this year, it will
not
begin to meet your image needs. No commercially-available online image
source currently available will do that; no -combination- of
commercially-available online image sources that I know of will do that,
either. To meet your specific institution's needs, you will have to
supplement -- and at present, supplement heavily -- with images you
acquire individually.
AMICO is made up entirely of the collections of the museums that are its
members, and so it will never include images for objects that aren't in
those museums' collections. At present, all of the members are North
American museums. It will never be able to cover all of the images needed
for a standard art history overview, because many of those objects are in
European or non-member or private collections. It will never have much
coverage of architectural interiors, because museums don't generally
collect those. This may improve in future, but at present the design arts
in general are poorly represented.
My feeling is that migrating away from slides is feasible if you have the
budget. But you will have to provide many of the images needed for
specific classes individually, either by scanning your own slides (and of
course depending on where you got the slides, you may have to get
permission for this) or by purchasing them individually from image
dealers.
For the testbed, the cost of subscribing to AMICO was $8000. I assume it
will be higher next year, but I don't know how much. This gives free
access to all of your school's faculty, students, and staff. To deliver
the images in a classroom, basically you need a network connection, a
computer, and a digital projector. You can't really do much with
arrangement of images with the RLG software that was used for the
testbed.
If you want to create specialized presentations, you can download the
images into a web page or some presentation software, and arrange them
within that.
Hope this helps.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dana Beth
Art & Architecture Librarian Washington University
Campus box 1061
[log in to unmask] St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
1 (314) 935-5218 USA
FAX: 1 (314) 935-4362
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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Paul: While projects like AMICO bode well for the future, they don't
really have enough content yet to take the place of a slide library that
serves an academic community. AMICO has only 40,000 images, all of which
are tied to the specific collections that are members of the consortium.
Due to copyright considerations, museums are not able to put images of
all
they own online in any case for fear of legal reprisals. I suggest that
you talk to the AMICO office staff and have them clarify some points, one
of which is that I believe I heard internally that the AMICO owners have
decided to concentrate their activities on the K-12 market. I would
prefer
not be quoted personally on the above but feel free to use my opinions
anonymously.
In general, I don't see how slides can be marginalized if there are no
digital image databases that are of the size and completeness to take
their
place. Your institution has presumably assembled a slide collection that
meets its teaching needs. Other institutions have simply digitized
their
slide collections, or parts of them, and offered them for internal
network
use only, with the assumption of fair use, for student review and access.
Whether these images have also been translated into classroom use in
place
of the original slides is probably not as likely, although I am sure you
will hear from academic institutions on this.
Ann
Ann B. Abid
Head Librarian
Ingalls Library
The Cleveland Museum of Art
11150 East Blvd.
Cleveland OH 44106
[log in to unmask]
216-421-7340 x537
216-421-0921 (fax)
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From: Lena Stebley <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 17:04:02 EDT
Subject: Re: Digitized images for instructional use
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Paul,
You may be interested in the findings of the recently-published final
report of
the Mellon study on The Cost of Digital Image Distribution: The Social
and
Economic Implications of the Production, Distribution and Usage of Image
Data. I was a member of the project team on this study. The report
raised
many issues and questions that are pertinent to your situation of
contemplating
converting to digital images for instructional use. Some of the major
findings
are summarized in the press release.
I've pasted the text from a message previously forwarded to ARLIS-L that
includes a description of the report (see below). It gives a good
overview
of the context for the study and includes the URLs for the final report
and
press release. For your convenience, here is the URL to the press
release:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon/99press-release.
html.l
It might be useful to pose some of your questions directly to AMICO --
particularly those about exactly what is in the database and not in the
database. (You may have already done this.)
Lena Stebley
Kress Fellow
Yale University Art =26 Architecture Library
180 York St / P O Box 208242
New Haven CT 06520-8242
lena.stebley=40yale.edu
http://www.library.yale.edu/art/aapage.html
Fax: 203.432.0549
Subject: Digital Image Distribution Study released
To: ARLIS-L=40LSV.UKY.EDU
-------------Forwarded Message-----------------
From: David Green, INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
To: Multiple recipients of list, INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
Date: 2/8/99 10:47 AM
RE: Digital Image Distribution Study released
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
February 8, 1999
DIGITAL IMAGE DISTRIBUTION STUDY NOW AVAILABLE
Berkeley Mellon Study of MESL Project
Press Release:
http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon/99press-release.
html
Report: The Cost of Digital Image Distribution: The Social and Economic
Implications of the Production, Distribution, and Usage of Image Data
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon
Last year, the Getty Trust published its report on one of the most
influential and seminal digital projects of recent years, the Museum
Educational Site Licensing project.
Initially created to discover and define acceptable terms and conditions
for licensing the distribution of digital museum images in the
educational
community, it grew to encompass, and bring its participants to grapple
with, in the words of Eleanor Fink (director of the sponsoring Getty
Information Institute) issues from content selection, image capture, and
standards for recording and transmitting data to systems interface
design,
faculty and student training in new technology, software tool
development,
use and impact studies, economic analyses and intellectual property
questions.
The Getty issued its report in two volumes last year: Delivering Digital
Images: Cultural Heritage Resources for Education, from
http://www.getty.edu/publications/titles/deliv/index.html Images
Online: Perspectives from the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project
http://www.getty.edu/publications/titles/images/index.html
Now, a Mellon Foundation-financed economic study of the MESL project,
conducted by the University of California at Berkeley has just been
released. The Cost of Digital Image Distribution: The Social and
Economic Implications of the Production, Distribution, and Usage of Image
Data
examines MESL's cost centers in the distribution of a digital library of
images and metadata.
The findings, according to the release, should be of interest to anyone
contemplating image digitization or distribution, particularly to a
scholarly audience. It should be of particular interest to those involved
in funding and/or planning activities involving either analog or digital
image distribution.
David Green
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 23:27:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Howard Besser [log in to unmask]
To: David Green [log in to unmask]
Subject: digital image distribution Study released
SPECIAL REPORT ON DIGITAL IMAGE DISTRIBUTION STUDY IS NOW AVAILABLE
This press release looks better viewed on a web browser at
http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon/99press-release.
html
A special report examining the costs of distributing digital images to
the
university community has just been released. The Cost of Digital Image
Distribution: The Social and Economic Implications of the Production,
Distribution, and Usage of Image Data is the result of a 22-month UC
Berkeley study of the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project (MESL),
supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The MESL Project, sponsored by the Getty Information Institute, was the
first attempt to create a collection of images and descriptive
information
from a variety of museums and deliver it digitally to university users of
campus networks. The two-year experimental collaboration among seven
museums and seven universities succeeded in distributing approximately
10,000 images for classroom use and individual research, primarily in the
areas of cultural studies, art history, history, and photography.
The Cost of Digital Image Distribution identifies, defines, and explores
MESL's primary cost centers in the digital network distribution of images
and accompanying text. It examines the processes and costs of analog
slide
libraries, and compares the analog and digital distribution systems. It
also considers the intangible factors that can lead to the success or
failure of digital distribution schemes, such as learning curve, ease or
difficulty of maintenance, and faculty attitudes towards teaching with
digital images.
The findings presented in this report should be of interest to anyone
contemplating image digitization or distribution, particularly to a
scholarly audience. It should be of particular interest to those involved
in funding and/or planning activities involving either analog or digital
image distribution.
Major findings include:
-It will be a long time before digital image repositories will be able to
deliver the critical mass of images needed for instruction and research.
Analog slide libraries and digital image repositories will necessarily
coexist for many years.
-The higher education community is enthusiastic about providing access to
digital images and information from cultural heritage repositories.
However, many impediments to widespread adoption must be dealt
with--ranging from lack of comprehensive content and the absence of
necessary tools to facilitate use, to inadequate recognition and support
for faculty who adopt new technology in their teaching.
-The anticipated shift from analog slide libraries to licensed digital
images represents a shift from ownership to access through ongoing
subscription. This shift is analogous to the changes that have taken
place
in university library collections. University administrators are
concerned about controlling content costs and faculty are concerned about
ongoing access to the images they use and need. Those university
positions
are at odds with those of museum image distribution consortia, who seek a
consistent revenue stream and are reluctant to assure ongoing access
without ongoing payment. For such image distribution schemes to work,
both
museums and universities have to see their common goals as outweighing
their individual concerns.
The Cost of Digital Image Distribution: The Social and Economic
Implications of the Production, Distribution, and Usage of Image Data
Howard Besser, Principal Investigator Robert Yamashita, Project Manager
A report to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation--A Study of the Economics of
Network Access to Visual Information: The Museum Educational Site
Licensing Project, Published by the School of Information Management and
Systems, U.C. Berkeley, 1998 Available online at
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon in both html and
PDF format
Paper copies of this report may also be ordered c/o Howard Besser, School
of Information Management =26 Systems, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California,
94720-4600
.
Howard Besser
Associate Professor
UCLA Department of Information Studies
address thru August 1999:
School of Information Management Systems
102 South Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-4600
tel: (510)643-7365
office: (510)642-1464
fax: (510)642-5814
[log in to unmask]
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/howard/
David L. Green
Executive Director
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington DC 20036
http://www.ninch.org
[log in to unmask]
202/296-5346 202/872-0886 fax
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