Identify Purpose:
- For what purpose do you want to use the digitized materials? Is your
main goal broader access, archival preservation, etc?
- What are the goals of the project? How do you envision these materials
will be made available?
- Will the digital images replace any existing originals?
Exploring Image Collections
on the Internet - Resources at MIT (Rotch Visual Collections). This
site provides an overview of resources for images (includes images pertaining
to archaeology, architecture and art to urban design. Gives an overview
summary of purposes of image database delivery on the web and links to
a variety of imaging projects on the internet.
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Assess
Original Collection of Materials:
- What is the physical condition of the materials?
- Are the materials black and white, color, half tones, sepia tones,
negatives, transparencies?
- What size are the materials? Do they fit into one or more size categories?
How many in each category?
- Approximately how many items in the collection do you want to digitize?
- How much of each: text, graphics, manuscript, do you anticipate digitizing?
- Do you require the production of an archival negative for each item?
- If the materials need to be taken off-site what special considerations
need to be made?
- Copyright/Ownership --What types(s) of copyright, ownership
or intellectual property issues (including those of surviving relatives)
will need to be resolved to clear the materials of any issues?
Copyright
and Image Management - A current update on copyright issues as they
pertain to digital images. Compiled and maintained by Georgia Harper, Office
of General Counsel, University of Texas System.
EDUCATIONAL
FAIR USE GUIDELINES FOR DIGITAL IMAGES - Committee on Fair Use Digital
Image Discussion Group. An ongoing discussion between copyright holders
and academe to find a common ground for permitted use of copyrighted materials.
Maintained at the University of Texas by Georgia Harper
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Schedule:
- What is the proposed time frame of this project?
For information on project management and scheduling software and consultation,
use YAHOO and search using "scheduling
software" and/or "project management software"
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Obtaining Funding:
- Have you identified a funding source(s) for this project?
- Can the grant allocate funding for personnel and physical resources
to maintain and provide networked access to these materials during the
course of the project? What about plans for maintaining access into the
future?
- What portion of the project do you anticipate the current funding request
will support? If the current funding opportunity doesnít support
all phases of the project, what additional funding sources can you leverage
to complete the project?
- Are there any restrictions on the use of the current funding?
Illinois Researcher Information
Service (IRIS), a subscription service of the University of Illinois
Library at Urbana-Champaign. The IRIS database of funding opportunities
has been compiled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since
1979. It currently contains records on over 7,700 federal and non-federal
funding opportunities in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
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Allocating Staff:
- Who will be responsible for the selection and physical evaluation of
the original materials?
- Who will be responsible for preparing the materials for digital capture
and conversion, including such things as encapsulation or de-encapsulation,
packaging in acid-free containers, transport to and from the digitizing
site, and insurance?
- Is there an existing item-level mounting or description for this collection?
How much time will it take for you to create or devise an inventory or
tracking list for this collection?
- Who will be responsible for manipulating the images post-scanning?
- Who will determine the best way(s) to make them available to user?
Likely collaborators subject experts, curators special collections librarians,
preservationists, indexers/catalogers, archivists, imaging specialists...
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The
Digitizing/Image Editing Process:
- Will the digitizing process be performed centrally, in one place? Off-site?
Will materials be digitized by more than one institution?
- What is the level of image quality that you expect to obtain? (pixels
per inch, dots per inch?)
- Are there specific image quality gridlines specified by the funding
source?
Introduction to Imaging
- Issues in Constructing an Image Database. An online book written by Howard
Besser and Jennifer Trant. An excellent place to start to learn all about
digital imaging; includes linked glossary.
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Descriptive
Information
- What type(s) of description and identification exists -- and at what
level -- item, collection, etc.? Item-level indexing? Existing description?
- What kind of minimal identification and description scheme do you intend
to implement for the images?
Categories for the Description
of Works of Art - Index - a list of distinct informational categories
(to be used as field names) pertaining to art and art history constructed
by the Art History Information Task Force of the Getty
Information Institute
Museum and cultural heritage
information standards resource guide - a resource guide to museum and
cultural heritage information standards. Links to a brochure explaining
why standards are important. Getty Information Institute and the International Committee for Documentation
of the International Council of Museums
Thesauri constructed for use as controlled vocabulary when describing
pictorial information:
- Art &
Architecture Thesaurus -Produced by the Art History Information Program
at the Getty Information Institute, this thesaurus is usefult in cataloging
the physical attributes of works of art. It has a searchable
version on the web
- Thesaurus for
Graphical Materials - includes terms that are useful for subject indexing
of pictorial materials. This thesaurus is produced by the Library of Congress
and is also searchable on the web.
- ICONCLASS - aniconographic
classification system; it is a collection of ready-made definitions of
objects, persons, events, situations and abstract ideas, that can be the
subject of a work of art. Terms and definitions used in ICONCLASS are most
approptriate for classical and religious works of art. A portion of this
thesaurus is searchable on the web.
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Establishing Access for Your Image Collection:
- Will the images need to be linked to existing bibliographic systems,
or will it be necessary to develop an access method for the images? At
what level will this access method be provided -- collection, item combination
of both?
- Where will be the central site for access and delivery of these materials?
- Will be your audience be global or local? Is password protection required?
- Does any markup language (HTML, SGML) need to be written?
About SGML: The University
of Virginia Electronic Text Center - a resource guide of online resources
explaining SGML compiled by David Seaman.
The SGML Web Page -
by Robin Cover. Provides links to several online project using SGML.
SGML: California Heritage
Digital Image Access Project - just one example of how SGML is used
to provide access to information.
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Into the Future:
- How do you plan to store archival quality images? In what medium and
where?
- What plans have you considered for data refreshing?
Preserving Digital
Information Executive Summary. A report submitted by the Report of
the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information commissioned by The Commission on Preservation
and Access and The Research Libraries
Group, Inc.
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Digital Services and Development Unit
If you have questions, or would like to tell us about a useful imaging
link or resource, please email us.
Maintained by Digital Services and Development Unit (formerly named Digital
Imaging and Media Technology Initiative), University of Illinois Library.
