October 1, 2004, vol. 1, no. 5
Image Stuff Home
Co-editors: Corey Schultz (Stanford University) & Kristin Solias (University of Massachusetts, Boston)
Table of Contents
VRA Elections
Fall Follow-up - An IT Response to ARTstor on Interoperability
VRA Funnies
Data Standards Update - VRA Core and XML
Education Update - Education Committee Website and Workshops
Intellectual Property Rights Update - Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (H.R. 107)
What's that Logo? - Search for a New Image Stuff Logo
Awards Available - Nancy DeLaurier and Travel Awards
Chapter News
VRA Elections
The VRA is electing a new executive board. Ballots have already been mailed out; select your candidates and be sure to postmark your ballots by October 4th. Candidates for President are Virginia M.G. Hall and John J. Taormina; candidates for Vice President are Marcia Focht and Betha Whitlow; and candidates for Secretary are Elizabeth M. Gushee and Linda Reynolds. More information about the candidates can be found at: www.vraweb.org/vol1special.html
Fall Follow-up - ARTstor
Interoperability and ARTstor
reprinted from Think Thunk (thinkthunk.blogspot.com), the blog of Eric Behrens, Associate Director, Information Technology Services, Swarthmore College
Joan Beaudoin at Bryn Mawr College directed me to a piece about ARTstor that was published in the most recent edition of the VRA Newsletter (August 1, 2004, vol. 1, no. 1). Here you will find ARTstor's plan for interoperability, as outlined by Barbara Rockenbach, Assistant Director of Library Relations at ARTstor.
This is a very discouraging statement to read.
The first problem is that a full two-thirds of ARTstor's interoperability strategy doesn't involve any interoperability. Exporting a low-resolution image isn't interoperability. Stable URL's are a good thing, but they're not interoperability either. When a professor has to take her personal images and manually add them to an off-line ARTstor viewer, she's not reaping the benefits of interoperability. In fact, anything that doesn't mention or imply an Application Programmer's Interface (API) isn't interoperability. Applications have to speak to each other, which requires that their programmers write the code that enables transactions between them.
The second problem is that the interoperability ARTstor is planning to build doesn't actually help our primary candidates for ARTstor use. The possibility of seeing ARTstor metadata and thumbnails in the Luna Insight client is useful for occasional research activities, but is insufficient for the core activities of professors and students.
The final problem with ARTstor's approach is its self-centeredness. You may be able to search your local images from the ARTstor someday. Maybe next year they'll even offer image hosting, which dodges interoperability by offering the monolithic solution. In both cases, you can use ARTstor images, but only in ARTstor. (By the way, the pilot projects they are hosting this year are static collections. They won't be modifiable by collections managers, which is an essential level of control for visual resources departments.) Neither of these solutions is even available today.
I have been working under the assumption that the Mellon Foundation sponsored this project with neither of these expected outcomes:
- create a dud product that receives a lukewarm response from the higher education community; nor
- create a monopolistic software vendor that squeezes commercial and educational/not-for-profit alternatives out of the marketplace.
The former outcome is possible, as I obviously think this interoperability issue is a bigger elephant in the room than ARTstor is currently acknowledging. As frightened as I am that ARTstor might fail, at the moment I'm almost as worried that it will succeed with its current strategy. If most schools eventually capitulate their freedom to select their preferred asset management tools in the name of having a complete teaching collection, the other offerings will eventually wither on the vine. This is especially sad, since ARTstor's image display tools are bested by the capabilities of a slew of other products.
In short, ARTstor is a perfect example of bureaucratic product design where the purveyors failed to understand how the end user would use their product. If they had put the needs of the teacher ahead of the needs of the collector, the ARTstor product would have been built upon an entirely different foundation - ARTstor would be unswervingly focused on getting their images into our slide shows and study sets.
An example of the right way to build a service comes to us from our friends at Apple. The genius of Apple's iTunes Music store wasn't the software interface or the integration with the iPod player. Jobs' masterstroke was that he convinced the conservative rights holders (record labels) that they needed to sign off on terms of agreement that were liberally in favor of the consumers who would pay for the music. Apple understood its customer and built a business plan around it.
If anybody reading this is from the visual resources or library communities or is an instructor who teaches with images, I encourage you to lend your support to the effort to bring about a change in ARTstor's interoperability directions.
VRA Funnies
Jonathan Cartledge, Massachusetts College of Art
Data Standards Update
VRA Core 3.0 Revisions
submitted by Ann Whiteside, University of Virginia, Chair, Data Standards Committee
The Data Standards Committee has been working on a revision of the VRA Core 3.0. As our community moves toward working with XML, and with draft versions of Cataloging Cultural Objects, it was clear that the Core needs revision. A sub-group of Data Standards has drafted a version of the Core that takes into account CCO recommendations and makes the Core compliant with the rules of XML. We have had substantial advice from members of the UCAI Project, as well as individuals working directly with XML in other projects. Data Standards hopes to release the new version in the next couple of months.
Education Update
News from the VRA Education Committee
submitted by Betha Whitlow, Washington University, Co-chair, Education Committee
The VRA Education Committee, chaired by Maureen Burns of University of California-Irvine and Betha Whitlow of Washington University in Saint Louis, is looking forward to another exciting year of listening to and working with our membership to develop programming suited to their educational needs and interests. To that end, we strongly encourage VRA members to look at the VRA Education Committee website, vraeducation.ucdavis.edu/, managed and developed by committee member Leah Theis at University of California-Davis. This website provides members the opportunity to fill out an online survey about educational interests and concerns. We strongly encourage our members to tell us what they are thinking, so that we may continue to forward programming that benefits our membership. The Education Committee website is also an excellent resource for locating educational opportunities outside of the those offered by the VRA. Check the "Links and Resources" page for an up to date and extensive set of links to other relevant professional organizations, degree programs, and workshops.
The Education Committee is also pleased to announce their sponsorship of two workshops for the Miami Conference. The extremely popular "Managing a Digitization Project" will be offered again by Howard Brainen and Trudy Levy. For our newer VR professionals, John Taormina and Karin Whalen will be leading their excellent "VR Fundamentals" workshop, which is back on the program after a three year hiatus. We are also pleased to announce that we will again offer Education Committee scholarships to the chairs or leadership of regional chapters to allow them to attend the workshop of their choice, in the hope that they will share what they have learned with their local membership. Please be on the watch for more information about this program to be posted to VRA Listserv in the months prior to the conference, and take advantage of what we consider to be an excellent opportunity for regional chapter leaders, and, ultimately, their members.
Intellectual Property Rights Update
Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act
submitted by Jane Darcovich, University of Illinois at Chicago, Intellectual Property Rights Committee
A bill moving through Congress would reinstate fair-use rights that consumers had with analog products, allowing us to legally circumvent copy controls to make personal copies of copyrighted digital products, including movies and music. Another of the bill's provisions would require "copy protected" CDs to be clearly labeled as such. [1] Known as the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (H.R. 107), the bill was introduced in January 2003 by Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA). Consumers' fair-use rights to make personal copies were curtailed by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, and this bill is the first to propose reforms to it.
Situations where fair-use copies of digital media might be made include the following: a consumer with an iPod who wants to copy their CDs to the device; purchasers of foreign-made DVDs who wish to view them on a domestic DVD player; consumers with computers running the Linux operating system who want to view a DVD on that computer. Important for teaching as well, copy controls could legally be circumvented to allow the use of a music or video clip in digital distance education (according to the provisions of the TEACH Act). In the field of library preservation, the creation of multiple copies would be allowed to guard against decay and the possible loss of the information contained in digital media. Currently, the DMCA does not allow consumers to circumvent copy controls to make even one copy.
The bill does not spell out how many personal copies constitute fair use and how many might result in one's being charged with a copyright violation. Mark Cooper, Research Director of the Consumer Federation of America, suggests that people who make less than 50 copies should be safe from the threat of lawsuits or prosecution. [2]
A diverse group of industry, academic and consumer rights groups, committed to a more balanced view of copyright protection, banded together this year to support passage of the bill. Dubbed "The Personal Technology Freedom Coalition," the group includes the corporations Intel, Sun Microsystems, and Gateway, and four major telecommunications carriers and ISPs, including Verizon and BellSouth. Other members include the American Library Association, the Association of American Universities, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Consumer Electronics Association. [3]
The many supporters of the DMCRA believe that the DMCA's anticircumvention provisions are stifling technology innovation. They support the view that legislation should not hinder the development of technologies designed to meet consumer and market demands, and that it should be the responsibility of copyright owners to go after infringers directly. Before the DMCA, court rulings determined when an activity was piracy and when it was fair use. The Boucher bill would allow court review to continue.
In an effort to spark discussion of the bill, Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig invited Rep. Rick Boucher to be a guest host on his blog site for a week in August. This section of the blog, "Fair Use in the Digital Age," is accessible in Lessig's blog archives at www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002084.shtml.
[1] www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/003592.html has a useful summary of the bill's goals. [Back to article]
[2]www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,116640,00.asp[Back to article]
[3] See www.publicknowledge.org/content/press-releases/2004-6-23a/view for a complete list of members and statement of goals. [Back to article]
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Logo Competition Image Stuff needs a new, permanent logo, one that reflects the VRA and the work that we do. We've assembled a wonderful, artistic jury, from three areas of the country: Jackie Spafford at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Meriann Bidgood at the University of Houston; and Jonathan Cartledge at the Massachusetts College of Art. If you have an idea for the new logo, send your submissions to Meriann (mrbidgooduhlib@yahoo.com) by Friday, November 19th. Enter once, enter often! The winner will be announced next issue. |
Awards - Achievement and Travel
Nancy DeLaurier Award Call for Nominations
submitted by Mark Pompelia, Rice University, and Eric Schwab, Ontario College of Art & Design, Awards Committee Co-chairs
The Nancy DeLaurier Award, named for one of the pioneers of the profession, annually honors a visual resources professional for distinguished achievement in the field. "Achievement" is measured by immediate impact, and may take the form of published work, oral presentation, project management, software development, technology application, website use, or other outstanding effort.
Nominations are now solicited for the 2005 Nancy DeLaurier Award. A dossier, consisting of a cover letter from the nominator describing the nature of the achievement, the candidate's curriculum vitae, and supporting documentation, will constitute an appropriate nomination. Electronic nominations via email or fax will be accepted only if all supporting documentation may be submitted in that format.
Members of the VRA Awards Committee, upon reading submitted dossiers, may recommend up to two recipients of the Award in any given cycle; recommendations are subject to approval by the VRA Executive Board.
Nominating letters and recipient remarks from the 2003 Nancy DeLaurier Award can be viewed online at www.vraweb.org/awards.html.
Nominations are due to the VRA Awards Committee Cochair at the address below no later than November 15, 2004:
Mark Pompelia
Visual Resources Center
Rice University
PO Box 1892-MS 21
Houston TX 77251-1892
ph: 713-348-4836
fax: 713-348-4039
e-mail: pompelia@rice.edu
Nominations will be reviewed until early December, at which point recommendations will be made to the Executive Board. Public announcement of the recipient(s) will be made at the Members' Reception at the 2005 VRA Annual Conference, March 5-11, Miami Beach.
The members of the Awards Committee thank you in advance for your assistance in acknowledging the outstanding achievement of our membership!
Travel Award Call for Applicants
The Travel Awards Committee is pleased to announce the availability of Travel Awards, which will provide financial assistance to VRA members who wish to participate in the annual conference in Miami Beach, FL, March 5-11, 2005. Ten grants of $750 each will be awarded. An additional award of $250 may be granted to a qualified International Member ($1000 award total).
Travel awards are granted to eligible VRA members who wish to participate in the annual conference, demonstrate financial need and clearly describe their expected benefits of attendance. Other considerations used in applicant evaluation are: first-time attendance at the VRA annual conference; veteran professional attendance (for a VRA member who has been in the profession at least five years and unable to attend a VRA annual conference for at least three years); international member participation; and the level of conference participation (i.e. session moderator, speaker, workshop leader, committee chair, etc.).
For more details and the application form, please visit www.vraweb.org/conferences.html.
Great Lakes
The fall meeting will be held October 22-23 at Ohio University in Athens, OH.
Mid-Atlantic
The Mid-Atlantic Chapter will be meeting jointly with the ARLIS-MD/DC/VA Chapter in Williamsburg, VA on October 1st and 2nd. The theme of the meeting is building collections in the digital world. Barrie Howard from the Digital Library Federation will speak on DLF and the arts. There will be sessions on artists books, building non-Eurocentric collections, licensing and delivery of digital images, ARTstor, and electronic journals. Colonial Williamsburg is hosting this meeting and we look forward to seeing their facilities as well. The Mid-Atlantic Chapter will also be holding elections for chapter officers, and making plans for meetings during the next year.
More news from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter: the Duke Department of Art and Art History received a new Instructional Technology grant from our Center for Instructional Technology totaling $30,000 for 2004-2005. This will fund the continuing project to develop digital materials for the Duke Image Base, utilizing Luna Insight software. The grant will underwrite the creation of 12,000 new digital images, 40% from in-house scanning and 60% from outsourcing. The grant targets continuing digital image development for the introductory western survey sections as well as new digital image development for ten undergraduate courses.
Even more new from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter: Bob Willis of Catholic University is moving his office to a new part of the building with much more room. He is changing the name from the Media Center to the Visual Resource Center. The new office has very good security (a large walk-in closet). The bad part is the move itself after so many years of accumulating equipment and information. Suddenly, thousands of lantern slides have appeared! There are equipment manuals for "new" typewriters! And large floppy discs!
And, yes, another news item from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter: the University Libraries at Virginia Tech recently purchased a license for Luna Imaging’s Insight. Insight will serve as a means to unite digitally the image collections of the Art & Art History Department and the Art & Architecture Library as well as hosting collections from a wide variety of disciplines. Other collections in the queue include the library’s Special Collections material, images from University Relations, and images from the School of Veterinary Medicine. The initial installation should take place in October of 2004. These projects will proceed under the supervision of Heather Ball (Art & Architecture Librarian), Gail McMillan (Director of Special Collections and the Digital Library & Archives), and Brian Shelburne (Visual Resources Curator for the Art & Architecture Library and VRA member).
Midwest
The fall meeting will be held November 12-13 in Minneapolis, MN (in conjunction with MCN and MINERVA).
New England
The New England chapter will meet November 5 in Freeport and Portland, ME. We will begin our day with the folks at Saskia, Inc. and finish the day at the Maine Historical Society with talks on cataloguing prints and photographs. For more information, please visit www.faculty.umb.edu/kristin_solias/vrane.html.
Northern California
VRA NoCal will be holding its fall meeting in early December; stay tuned for further information.
Upstate New York
The Upstate New York Chapter's fall meeting is planned for Friday,November 5th at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute in Utica, hosted by Kathy Corcoran. This will be a joint meeting with ARLIS/WNY.
If you would like more information on any of the other regional chapters, please contact the appropriate chapter chairperson. A list of the chapters and contact information is posted on the VRA website (www.vraweb.org/chapters.html).