by Denise on November 20, 2008
I’ve written before about the ideal for access to heritage digital images. In case you don’t recall I described it as follows:
Universal, scalable, trustworthy, sustainable, and permanent access to all heritage digital images from the publicly accessible to the privately held, including those from all museums and cultural institutions, archives and libraries, private collections, and publishers, using a system of organization that maximizes entry points and interconnections between objects and relevant texts, to facilitate retrieval for all imaginable purposes, through interfaces which have the capability of searching across all platforms, providing high resolution images, thumbnail browsing, copying and reuse for non-commercial purposes, and links to contextual materials, with continuously updated information of the applicability of worldwide copyright status and contact information for obtaining permissions.
While it is utopian, this ideal provides a context for looking at what exists, and what is evolving. Having an ideal toward which we strive is critical, even if entirely impractical at present. It seems to me that the steps that are being taken now should [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Digital image,
google books,
searchability
Pig from Bath, England. Photo Credit: Marcio Cabral de Moura
Proprietary digital art collections make me mad. As do all the art resources online that cost money. It’s my open source, information should be free, mentality, I guess. I understand that everyone needs to make a living, and that it takes time and resources to put together and maintain a digital collection. I don’t have an answer to this paradox. But I didn’t say I did. Nevertheless it makes me mad.
Here is an example: The art-public.com online library. As described on its website it “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.” The website also claims that “all subjects feature examples of artwork with commentary and color photo illustrations.” A list of the types of works included is at the end of this article.
With respect to the main subject of Ofness, the searchability of the art in the collection, the following information is provided. “Information is stocked in a database structured around three index fields – artist, location and commissioning sponsors – which provide access to representative articles including practical description of artwork (artist, title, year, location…). This information is complemented by a collection of images. Each work of art is illustrated with up to six color photos; commentary is provided in several languages. Through the SIGAP [System of Information and Administration of Public Art] system, the database can be accessed via keywords.” [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Art,
art-public.com,
Bath England,
Digital art,
Flickr,
Metadata,
pig,
Public art,
SIGAP,
Visual Arts
