The Academic Image Co-operative
With funding from The Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation and the support of the College Art Association,
the AIC was initiated in January 1999 as a planning process to
develop a scaleable database of curriculum-based digital images
for survey courses in the history of art. The planning process
was completed formally in August 2000 and resulted in a prototype
database and image collection. It also developed technical,
organizational, and policy frameworks that have the potential for
sustaining a more ambitious online service; one capable of
identifying, developing, and disseminating a far large number of
curriculum-based and scholarly image collections.
Since the completion of this planning process, ongoing
discussions between the DLF and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
have focused on how the AIC's image collection - and the learning
derived in its development - might contribute to a broader
initiative under consideration by the Foundation and
provisionally named ArtSTOR. Briefly, ArtSTOR is looking to do
with visual resource materials something analagous to what JSTOR
did for periodical literature in the humanities and social
sciences: create an essential digital library that responds to
widespread scholarly needs.
The result is a collaboration whereby the DLF is helping the
foundation to develop circumscribed, strategically identified
image collections that respond to widespread teaching and other
specialist scholarly needs. It is envisaged that these
collections, including the one developed by the AIC, will be
incorporated into the evolving ArtSTOR service, which eventually
will be managed as a project of the Foundation or an organization
that they designate.
For a programmatic and preliminary description of the ArtSTOR
initiative, please consult the 1999 President's Report available
from the Mellon Foundation website at http://www.mellon.org/President
annual report 99.pdf. These pages document the AIC's
development as a DLF initiative.
- Final Report on the AIC as
submitted to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in August
2000
- Traces the progress of the AIC from its initial conception
through the development of collection, technical and image
documentation standards, service specifications, and business
plan.
- The AIC Draft Collection Strategy
and Development Framework.
- Resulting from a review of the AIC's progress during the
period from 1/99 - 2/00, the document outlines a collection
strategy and development framework that may sustain the
initiative in the longer terms. It states the AIC's aims and
objectives, and proposes detailed strategies for developing,
managing, and providing access to its collections.
- AIC brochure.
- This brief document outlines the AIC's vision and was
developed to be circulated at conferences and other professional
gatherings where the prototype has been demonstrated.
- Details about the AIC's
development.
- These pages trace the AIC's development as a DLF
project.
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