Museum documentation initiatives: imaging, multimedia and digital resources

This page provides current information about museum documentation imaging and multimedia developments. It is one of a number of pages about museum information standards and related documentation issues prepared by the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CIDOC). Some of the information given here is taken from announcements by the producers of resources, or participants in projects, and some is from secondary sources. Neither CIDOC nor the page author or maintainer can guarantee its accuracy or objectivity. There is also an introduction to the overall set of pages about recent initiatives.

Articles in the February 1997 issue of the American Council of Learned Societies Newsletter (vol 4, 4) include 'Images on the Internet: issues and opportunities', by Jennifer Trant.

The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) is a not for profit association of institutions with collections of art, that have come together to enable educational use of the digital documentation of their collections. Together, AMICO Members are building a joint digital library that is available to universities and colleges, public libraries, and kindergarten through 12th grade schools. The thumbnail catalogue contains over 50,000 works of art. Any organization with a collection of art can be an AMICO Member. Membership will grow over time to include institutions of many types from around the world. AMICO's growing membership now comprises 28 institutions in North America.

Further information from the AMICO Website or from the Executive Director, Jennifer Trant or the Chairman of the AMICO Board, Harry S. Parker

The Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE provides a useful starting point for information about image resources and technology.

The CIDOC Multimedia Working Group, spent its meetings in Nuremburg (1997 conference) developing a set of criteria for the evaluation of heritage multimedia (*very* draft version). Further information from Jennifer Trant.

Details of the Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts (EVA) conferences and related activities are now available on a Web service from Vasari UK.

Finding pictures / by Michael Lesk, Director, Information and Intelligent Systems, National Science Foundation. RLG DigiNews, vol.1, issue 2, 1998.

Discusses current research into the indexing of images through mechanized image analysis.

Guides to quality in visual resource imaging / Digital Library Federation, Council on Library and Information Resources and the Research Libraries Group, editorial board. - Forthcoming Web-based publication, scheduled for September 1999.

A series of technical guides to be authored by experts in the imaging industry, under the review of an Editorial Board, on selected topics, including: Setting up and Imaging System, and Reproduction Qualities of Digital Masters.

Details of the Imaging initiative of the Getty Art History Information Program are available. It has published Introduction to Imaging: issues in constructing an image database, by Howard Besser and Jennifer Trant. Santa Monica, CA: Getty Art History Information Program, 1995, with details of imaging standards. See also the article by Jennifer Trant in Archives and Museum Informatics , 9(3), 1995, entitled 'The Getty AHIP Imaging Initiative: a status report', p262-278.

Volume 49, issue 4 of ICOM News (1996) contains a series of short articles on multimedia, networks and museums. These include:

• 'Virtual museums', by Marco Tonon, p2
• 'CIDOC's Multimedia Working Group', by Jennifer Trant, p3
• 'Multimedia and the public', by Michel Van-Praèt, p4
• 'Positioning multimedia systems in the museum', p5
• 'Multimedia as a complement to the museum visit', p6
• 'Editorial policies and CD-ROM', p7
• 'Multimedia and museum professionals', by Claire Barbillon, p8
• 'Intellectual property rights and digital imaging', by Jeremy Rees, p9

The CIDOC Multimedia Working Group has published a first public version of Introduction to Multimedia in Museums. For further information, see the page summarising the guide or contact Ann Borda.

The Museum Educational Site Licensing (MESL) Project explored intellectual property issues concerning digital images. The project formally ended in July 1997. See also the article by Jennifer Trant in Spectra, 23(3), 1996, titled 'The Museum Educational Site Licensing (MESL) Project. An update', p32-34' and an interview with Jennifer Trant in The Getty Bulletin, 10(1), Summer 1996, 8-9 on the role of the project in the field of digital imaging.

Museum Informatics Project, University of Berkeley, California. Information from Walter Koch.

The Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) provides details of its imaging initiatives.

RLG has released the third issue of RLG DigiNews, the web-based, quarterly newsletter. The third issue contains a feature article by Franziska Frey of the Image Permanence Institute, "Digital Imaging for Photographic Collections: Foundations for Technical Standards."

The Museum Digital Licensing Collective (MDLC) is a non-profit organization with aims similar to those of SCRAN or AMICO formed to:

• provide financial assistance for the digitization of original materials in museums and collecting institutions
• manage the storage, distribution, and licensing of digitized materials to educational institutions, libraries, museums, commercial companies, and the public
• develop and distribute related technical and computer services

Development partners include the American Association of Museums, Cornell University, Sun Microsystems, and the University of California, Berkeley. The Association of Research Libraries will provide consultation on licensing and use issues, and 19 major USA museums and libraries have been listed as potential early contributors.

• A catalogue of museum images : once digitised, indexed and registered, the images are made available to the public together with a powerful search and retrieval engine - standard or advanced, according to each professional needs - The catalogue is updated regularly and will offer before the end of year 1998 more than 200,000 cultural images of high-quality from different public and private archives. Once selected, image reproduction rights might be ordered on-line, and, at a later stage, will be paid and delivered via the Internet.
• A gallery which demonstrates the quality of the digitisation process together with usage possibilities of high definition images.
• A museum shop which offers a carefully selected choice of cultural CD-ROMs and of European Antique drawings.
• A cultural magazine, related to a major exhibition.
• A listing of major art exhibitions for 1998.

New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia '98 (NRHM) is a refereed annual review journal covering research on practical and theoretical developments in hypermedia, interactive multimedia and related technologies. Papers are now being called for the 1998 issue, for which one theme will be Hypermedia for Museums and Cultural Heritage, covering topics such as: hypermedia link services; networked access; time-varying interactive presentations; image, audio and video databases; navigation design; intelligent hypermedia and agents; web-based museum hypermedia; spatial and temporal models; evaluation and studies of use; metadata and intellectual access; thesauri and semantic representations; and copyright/IPR for digital multimedia. Contact the editor, Douglas Tudhope for details. [March 1998]

Scientific, industrial, and cultural heritage : a shared approach : a research framework for digital libraries, museums and archives. - Lorcan Dempsey. - Ariadne Issue 22, 12th January 2000. - Viewed 12th August 2000.

The Information Society Technologies programme within the EU's Framework Programme Five supports access to, and preservation of, digital cultural content. This document describes some common concerns of libraries, archival institutions and museums as they work together to address the issues the Programme raises. This accounts for three major emphases in the document. First, discussion is very much about what brings these organisations together, rather than about what separates them. Second, it describes an area within which a research agenda can be identified; its purpose is not to propose a programme of work or actions, rather a framework within such a programme might be developed. Finally, although the main focus is on access to resources, this is placed in an overall life-cycle context. - [Author's introduction]

TASI : Technical Advisory Service for Images is a service funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) set up to advise and support the UK academic community on the digital creation, storage and delivery of image-related information. It is based within the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) a national centre of excellence in the development and use of technology-based methods in teaching, learning and research, of the University of Bristol.

Its objectives are to:

• share and promote technical expertise and standards within the academic and public sectors
• enable the academic community to develop digital archives of good quality image-related materials to support effective teaching and research by providing comprehensive information and advice.

http://cidoc.icom.museum/stand3i.htm
Revised/Dernière mise à jour: 2002-12-20
Original author/Auteur original: Andrew Roberts
Now maintained by / Maintenant entretenu par: Leonard Will
Link to/Passerelle vers CIDOC home page/la page d'accueil du CIDOC or ICOM home page/la page d'accueil de l'ICOM
© The International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums/Comité international pour la documentation du Conseil international des musées (ICOM-CIDOC), 1997-1998