----------------------------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] ************************************************************************* ********************* 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/ ************************************************************************* ********************* 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] ************************************************************************* ********************* 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 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ************************************************************************* ********************* 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) ************************************************************************* ********************* 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 ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]