Ofness

Subject Access to Art Images in a Nutshell

Denise — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:19:44 +0000

It was quite a while before I discovered Introduction to Art Image Access, edited by Murtha Baca, but when I did I knew that this was the place I should have started. It is a clear, consise, and comprehensive introduction to the "subject of images" in the context of providing access to the images. This online publication, which is also available in print, "addresses the issues that underlie the intellectual process of documenting a visual collection to make it accessible in an electronic environment" and is one of several Data Standards and Guidelines the Getty makes available for free.

LIFE with Google: Consider the Alternative

Denise — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:51:20 +0000

The new LIFE photo archive hosted by Google is a rich trove of images dating back to the 1750's. Google has opened up the archive to the public and ultimately it will contain over 10,000,000 images, most of which have never been published. This is an exciting and amazing digital collection and Google is to be praised for its continued adherence to its "mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." ....The most problematic aspect of search, however, isn't the limited text or labels available to search; it is the fact that all searches return no more that 200 results. Google doesn't make any effort to explain this. Since all searches retrieve only 200 photos, the same search may return different results each time you run it....

Searching Art by Subject at the TATE

Denise — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:12:36 +0000

"Here's the good news. The TATE has used a relatively expansive list of subjects to organize a prominent subject search capability for all the works in its online collection. One can see a full display of a subject term in the context of the hierarchy. Although browsing within the hierarchy is limited, the simple search functionality is excellent and provides a different way to browse by subject matter." The post is a detailed overview of the strengths and weakness of the Tate's subject search functionality.

Reconciling Scholarship with Stewardship

Denise — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:39:32 +0000

One month ago, on January 5, 2009 the Max Plank Institute for the History of Science published a document titled Best Practices for Access to Images: Recommendations for Scholarly Use and Publishing. To my ears it reads far more like a thoughtful manifesto than a statement of best practices. "We request that curators refrain from arbitrarily restricting the public domain. We further ask our colleagues in libraries, museums, and other repositories to accommodate the needs of scholars for freely accessible, high-resolution digital images." writes Christine von Oertzen in her summary of the recommendations.

200,000 Paintings in the UK Going Online but…..

Denise — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:55:17 +0000

The recent news that "[t]he BBC is to put every one of the 200,000 oil paintings in public ownership in the UK on the internet," as reported on January 28, 2009 by the Guardian, isn't exactly about searching by subject, which is my subject, but it will lead there eventually. It is heartening news about the right of the public to access publicly owned works. ..It is implied that the entire database, all the information collected , will be available to the public online. I certainly hope so. But there are unanswered questions. What is being catalogued? Is it only the basic information provided in print? Or is more detailed information being collected and available online?Will all images be made available at the resolution one finds in the few large catalog images available now? Or will the online presentation replicate the catalog pages already online? Will there be subject matter cataloging? Using what system? Will the images be tagged or placed in any subject hierarchy? Will the interface allow for more sophisticated filtering techniques for the search? I continue to hope that this aspect of the project will be as comprehensive and visionary as the scope of the works being included.

The Metropolitan Flunks Subject Search

Denise — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:21:49 +0000

The digital image collection available to all comers on the website of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is a mixed bag. I refer of course, not to the contents of the collection, but to the display and searchability of the subject matter of the works in the collection. The Met is generous with the textual information it possesses. It provides Gallery Label, Notes, Provenance, Exhibition History, and References. The Met tries to compensate for the small size of its online images by allowing access to a fairly high resolution image (Great), but only through a paltry sized window (Not so great). There is no real subject matter search, even of a limited sort, via a hierarchical tree. The best one can do is to search within the Title or the Description in the hope that the subject you are looking for appears in one of those two field. But in general the descriptions do not provide mush subject matter detail. My review tell me that the descriptions of works in the Met's collection are poor substitutes for real subject matter classification, and of little help in a subject matter search.

WORLDCAT for Images?

Denise — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:14:51 +0000

Worldcat has 1.2 billion items from more than 10,000 libraries, cataloged. Google books has the full text of over 7 million books (as of October 28, 2008), searchable. Now, let's now imagine 1.2 billion images from more than 10,000 museum and other digital collections, cataloged and searchable.

Public Art Works for 160 € (Euros) a year

Denise — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:13:15 +0000

The art-public.com online library, as described on its website, “focuses on the role of art in urban projects...Recent creations and works in progress are organized by category and illustrated with examples from around the world, with an emphasis on the principal cities of Europe.” But not one single example is provided to illustrate the usefulness of the collection, its searchability, or its contents, AND it costs a huge amount. An unfavorable review.

A Mini History of Pre-Digital Image Collections

Denise — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:29:01 +0000

Prior to the development of digitization techniques and the internet, image collections, typically slides, were organized by individuals who used the slides for teaching, or by individual holding institutions, often in unique or idiosyncratic ways. The systems for organizing these slides were relatively simple and had limited access points. While there were common elements, there were many differences, both in the character and depth of the organization. Since digitization of images emerged radical changes have occurred. The creation of meaningful metadata is thus one of the chief challenges facing heritage image collections. This is a challenge for both technology and for the development and management of human resources.

TASI - A Great Portal to Image Collections

Denise — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:24:09 +0000

The TASI database of digital image collections is a big (800 collections with more being added all the time) and well organized metacollection. It offers a short abstract of each image collection with links to a full record and to the collection described. What is so great about these image collection descriptions is that they tell you, however briefly, about the searchability of the collection. More impressively, the Image Sites Database is itself browsable and searchable. TASI, you should also know, is an indespensilbe resource for every aspect of digital imaging. In addition to the Image Sites Database it offers Online Advice Documents, an Enquiry service, Training, a Mailing List, Consultancy and the TASI lightbox.