Distribution Services. Functional Specification

The following functional specification was developed at a meeting of the AIC held at Yale University on 4 August 2000.

AIC collections will be disseminated on portable formats (e.g. to institutions that wish to incorporate collections into local systems environments) and via an online service supplied by the AIC or by a contracted third party

Principles:

• Distribution by portable formats will support institutions that wish to integrate AIC collections into local image databases and image delivery services
• Distribution via online service will support a wider range of institutions and individuals

F1. Dissemination by portable formats

AIC images and data will be distributed on portable media with appropriate documentation

Where collections are developing, updated versions of them will be distributed periodically to appropriate subscribers.

Updates will include images and data for collections in their entirety

F2. Dissemination via online service supplied by the AIC or by contracted third party

• The online service will supply functionality designed principally to satisfy the needs of learning, teaching, and research
• Service functionality will develop through time
• The online service will be available to users without additional browser plugins
• For each image the online service will supply a minimum of two resolutions - low and high resolutions, respectively
• A low-fidelity service (including low-resolution images and brief metadata records) may be made available at no cost to users
• A high-fidelity service including high resolution images, full metadata records, and more advanced resource discovery and presentation features will be made available to bona fide subscribers

Image formats available from online service

• Low resolution image. Each image in the AIC's collections will be available as a JPEG image supplying the best full-pixel resolution permitted under copyright law and as consistent with the AIC's business interests
• High resolution image. Each image in the AIC's collection will be available as a 1024x768 JPEGs
• Higher resolution images. These may be made available where supported by the underlying Master file and in a manner that is consistent with the AIC's business interests
• Other formats. Wavelet compressed and other image formats may also be made available for some images as part of an enhanced online AIC service. Such formats may not be available at service launch

Functionality of online service

More detailed functional requirement will be developed through review of complementary and competing image services. The following functional specification are offered as a minimal starting point for that review

• Resource discovery
  • Users will be able to search for and browse images within and across the AIC's discrete collections
  • Users will be able to search for images by fielded and keyword searching. Search fields will be determined through review of complementary and competing services
  • Users will be able to browse for images according to canned or prepackaged or canned categories. Prepackaged categories will be determined for individual collections. Categories displaying images from across collections may also be made available
• Result sets and their presentation
  • Low-resolution images and brief metadata records will be returned as brief results
  • High-resolution images and full metadata records will be available for images selected from brief results
  • The service will support side-by-side presentation of images (slide table function)
  • Users will be able to select and sequence individual images and associated metadata records and save them as named subsets or groups. Users should be able to save side-by-side views as objects in saved groups
  • Users should be able to group metadata records as well as images and their associated metadata
  • Users should be able to present groups as slide shows
  • Users should be able to export images and associated metadata, side-by-side views, and groups, as HTML files
• Other
  • If possible, the service should support users who wish to integrate their own image content (and associated metadata) in groups, slide shows, side-by-side views, etc.