Saturday, March 29, 2008

ARTstor: Images for Academic Publishing (IAP)

To help reduce the expense of publishing images in academic journals and similar publications, ARTstor has initiated the Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) service.  The initial release of nearly 1,700 IAP images comes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  They can be found within the ARTstor Digital Library by including "IAP" within search terms.  Participating image providers have agreed to make IAP images available free of charge for qualifying publications, while ARTstor has developed the software to deliver the publication-quality images.  Scholars working on a specific publication but who are unaffiliated with an ARTstor participating institution may register for the IAP service by contacting iap@artstor.org.

With the hope that the IAP initiative will promote scholarship and learning and that early success will encourage widespread participation and support, ARTstor and its partners expect that the IAP will include images from multiple sources over time.  For more information, please see ARTstor's Images for Academic Publishing page.

Image: Terracotta neck-amphora (jar), Greek, Attic, black-figure, Archaic, ca. 540 B.C., Attributed to Exekias, H. 18 1/2 in. (47 cm), diameter 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm), Rogers Fund, 1917 (17.230.14a, b); Gift of J. D. Beazley, 1927 (27.16) (17.230.14a, b), www.metmuseum.org.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Steve Bailey's Online Tutorials for CU-Boulder Faculty

CU-Boulder faculty members who are not already aware of the great resources available to them on Steve Bailey's web site should take a moment to have a look.  Steve, the Distributed Academic Technology Coordinator for Arts and Humanities at CU, has posted some very helpful tutorials he created, as well as some useful links on his 'references' tab.  The tutorials currently cover topics related to CULearn, CUConnect, CULink, Web Design, and more.  Steve is an excellent source of information for the enterprise software systems at CU, as well as all kinds of academic technologies.

Plain English: Social Bookmarking from Common Craft


The folks at Common Craft are genius at introducing the concepts behind the various facets of Web 2.0 technologies by using short videos.  This example presents social bookmarking in a concise and inspiring way.  Other videos from Common Craft include RSS in Plain English, Social Networking in Plain English, and Wikis Described in Plain English.  Watch them, then go to the del.icio.us web site, create an account, and bookmark the Common Craft site. (with thanks to Meghan Musolff, who shared this resource on the VRA listserv - a daily source of really great information!)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

On the Topic of Flickr...

Check out this groovy application by Jim Bumgardner called Colr Pickr, which searches for Flickr images based on color.  I can click on the thumbnail images and be taken directly to their Flickr pages.  A quote from the web site:  This is either something that designers and photo editors have been waiting their whole lives for, or one of those "I've created this because the Web lets me do it" kinds of things.-- Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Library of Congress Slideshow from Flickr

From the LOC's 1930s-40s in Color set. Working on our blogger skills...



Library of Congress on Flickr

In January of this year, the Library of Congress initiated a pilot project on Flickr with two image sets: 1930s-40s in Color photographs were created for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) between 1939 and 1944, while News in the 1910s images were photographed by the Bain News Service in about 1910-1912.  As of this writing these collections comprise just over 3,200 images, with plans for regular augmentation occurring in batches of 50.  The images were selected for this project in part because existing records about them are minimal, and LC hopes to gain a better understanding of how social tagging and community input might benefit both the Library and users of the collections.  The public is invited to tag these photos, and the response has been phenomenal.  Tens of thousands of tags have been added, and in some cases users have provided LC with valuable information that had been lacking in the scant LC records.  The LC blog reports that as of March 20, they have modified 68 of their bibliographic records thanks to this project.  One example of how the promise of social tagging theory is becoming reality!  LC neither grants nor denies permissions for the use of these images; they present no known publication or distribution restrictions, although privacy rights may apply.  While this project is exciting for the potential of social tagging and the current and possible technical interfaces that a service like Flickr provides, the LC Prints & Photographs Online Catalog still offers access to around a million images on its web site. 

Image: Jack Delano, "Backstage" at the "girlie" show at the Vermont state fair, Rutland, September 1941. From 1930s-40s in Color.

Monday, March 24, 2008

ARTstor Image Downloads

Exciting news from ARTstor: more than 95% of ARTstor's images are now available at a download size of 1024 pixels on the long side.  Additionally, users may zoom and pan to create details of ARTstor images that may also be downloaded at this size.  These screen-sized images may then be used in the presentation software of your choice, such as Keynote or PowerPoint.  Of course, ARTstor's easy-to-use Offline Image Viewer (OIV) software still provides streamlined image presentation tools, with the ability to pan and zoom on the fly during presentations.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

This Page is Under Construction

Come back soon! Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.  Obviously, we are a little short on content at the moment.  We are busy with our new digital image collection!  See our web page for more information.  In the meantime, enjoy this photo of Toni the dog, taken by Elaine in July 2007 at Uxmal, in the Yucatán.  We had encountered him the evening before at our hotel and worried about him, wondering where this poor, sweet, homeless guy slept at night.  The next day, as we stood in the Nunnery with our guide, Jorge Mex, the dog reappeared.  Jorge said, "That's Toni - he lives here.  The guides here named him after our dear friend Antonio, because he is such a kind dog."  We felt much better knowing that Toni had a name and loved ones, and later that afternoon we were happily surprised to find him snoozing inside the temple at the top of the Great Pyramid.  

Image: Elaine Paul, Toni the Dog at the Top of the Great Pyramid, Uxmal, Yucatán, Mexico, July, 2007.