Europeana: 15 Million Images, Videos, Audio Files, and Texts

If you have not yet visited Europeana, here's your chance to "study abroad." Europeana is a an impressive digital library of over 15 million items from 1500 museums, archives, libraries, and other organizations representing the cultural and scientific heritage of Europe. As described on their about us page, these items include:

• Images - paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects
• Texts - books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers
• Sounds - music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts
• Videos - films, newsreels and TV broadcasts

After conducting a basic or advanced search, search results are presented as a mix of all of these object types, but you can choose from  Images, Videos, or Sounds tabs to examine those types in particular. You can also refine your search by provider, country, language, type, dates, or rights.

If you register for an account you can save your searches, save particular items, or save tags.

Pathfinder: New Virtual Tour of the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago has just launched an interactive floor plan called Pathfinder. This tool allows one to explore the entire floor plan, with links to works of art and their catalog information, panorama views of galleries, and exhibitions and events. Events include daily programming such as gallery talks and tours. Available in both English and Spanish, this is an innovative way to present the museum to those who may not be able to visit in person, as well as those who may be planning visits. The Art Institute plans to include gallery views of its entire collection as the museum's renovations proceed in the coming months.