TASI – A Great Portal to Image Collections

JISC and TASI

The Image Sites Database of TASI, a project of JISC in Bristol, England,  is one of the best I have found.

I still haven’t been able to find out what TASI stands for, but JISC is the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), a government funded organization which seeks to provide world-class leadership in the innovative use of ICT to support education and research.  “The aspiration of TASI is to ensure that digital media resources being created, used and managed within the further and higher education community meet the teaching, learning and research needs of individuals and institutions within the UK.”

The image sites database is only one part of TASI, which is itself a small part of JISC , but given the narrow focus of this blog it is the only part I’m addressing.  TASI, you should know, is an indespensilbe resource for every aspect of digital imaging.  In addition to the Web site which fully describes all the other resources, it offers Online Advice Documents, an Enquiry service , Training,  a Mailing List, Consultancy and the TASI lightbox.

Back to the Image Sites Database

The TASI list of digital image collections is big (over 800 collections) and  well organized.  New collections are constantly being added.  It offer a short abstract (shown below) of each collection which links to a full record and to the collection described.

Here is the full record for a new collection.

Searchability

What is so great about these image collection descriptions is that they tell you, however briefly, about the searchability of the collection.  In this example:  “Users can browse by further sub-categories, or search by keyword. It is alos possible to browse by ‘latest images’.”  This information is so valuable that we must forgive the minor typo.

More impressively, the Image Sites Database is itself  browsable and searchable.

You can browse by Source Material:

Artworks (164)
Books (58)
Cartographic (43)
Documents (73)
Manuscripts (92)
Medical Illustrations (21)
Newspapers and Magazines (31)
Photographic (275)
Sheet Music (16)
Technical Drawings (30)

Or you can browse by Subject Classification

Architecture (62)
Architecture (11)
Art (1)
Art and Design (182)
Entertainment (52)
Geography (134)
History (261)
Literature (62)
Religion (41)
Science (112)
Sport (26)
Technology (51)

I have no idea why there are 2 architecture classifications.  You will have to figure that out yourself.

You can do a simple word search or an advanced word search within ten different categories and combine up to four of these at a time.  Wow!

More detail on TASI’s other services:
* Web site – providing a wealth of online resources such as digitisation case studies and tools which sit alongside the Advice Documents (see next bullet point)
* Online Advice documents – over 100 technical and theoretical advice documents are made available which provide accurate and up-to-date information catering for all levels
* Enquiry Service – free help and advice on topics such as planning a digitisation project, resolving digitisation problems, buying equipment and using digital media
* Training – a wide range of high quality hands-on technical workshops, catering for all levels
* Mailing List – http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/tasi.html access to peers and professionals within the education and cultural heritage sectors for sharing of information and experiences
* Consultancy – for substantial in-depth help and guidance on digitisation projects that cannot be supported by the Enquiry Service
* The TASI Lightbox – news and views covering all aspects of digital media creation and use

TASI also offers great guides for the following topics: Finding images online.

* Finding current events images
* Finding art, architecture and design images
* Finding historical images
* Finding scientific images
* Finding maps
* Finding images on Flickr
* Images in blogs and wikis
* Photo sharing sites

TASI has much more than this about digital images and collections but you’ll have to visit to scope the rest out yourself.  I’m really trying very heard to stick to SUBJECT MATTER IMAGE SEARCH.

Related articles by Zemanta

• JISC Announce Launch of Multi-million pound News Archive

Back to top

Tagged as: Collection Portal, Digital Collections, Image Sites Database of TASI, JISC, Joint Information Systems Committee