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Academic Image Co-operative (AIC). Draft
collection strategy and development framework
As recommended by a review of the AIC's progress conducted on
20 April 2000
D Greenstein
23 April 2000
-
The document outlines a collection strategy and development
framework for the Academic Image Co-operative (AIC). It states
the AIC's aims and objectives, and proposes strategies for
developing, managing, and providing access to its collections.
The document also outlines organizational options, and suggests
immediate next steps. It grows out of a review of the AIC's
progress since inception in January 1999 and supplies a route map
for the Co-operative's further development and for the emergence
of a business plan capable of sustaining the initiative. The
document does not supply implementation guidelines. Rather it
outlines key areas where implementation guidelines will need to
emerge and proposes mechanisms for their development
Participants in the review are listed in appendix. They
represent institutions that have had a stake in the AIC. Also
included in the review were a number of art historians, visual
resource professionals, and digital library specialists
representing institutions who have a stake in the development and
sustainability of the kind of initiative proposed by the AIC.
- Background
The AIC was initiated in January 1999 to enable a new kind of
community building amongst art historians and visual resources
professionals by facilitating the sharing and exchange of art
history images and data over the Web. In its initial inception it
aspired to be:
- a shared cataloging utility for the visual resource
profession, from which image catalogers may freely derive
cataloging records and to which image catalogers may also
contribute such records readily;
- a shared image library created for and by the art history and
visual resource community unconstrained by copyright
restrictions; and
- affordable if not indeed made available free of charge for
educational purposes
In these respects, the AIC was conceived as building on the
work of individual art historians and visual resource
professionals, especially a handful of individuals who have
already sought to advance these same goals informally, as
individuals (Allan Kohl, Kathy Cohen) and in small collaboratives
(Jeff Cohen and the SAH group). It sought, in effect, to "scale
up" these efforts by enlisting:
- the direct participation of these individuals and
groups;
- the support of institutions such as the Yale Library and
Carnegie Mellon University; and
- the support of professional organizations such as the DLF and
CAA, the project's two institutional sponsors to date.
In its first year, the AIC tested its ability to achieve these
goals by focusing initially upon heavily-subscribed,
widely-taught art history courses, beginning in the first
instance with the standard art history survey. Briefly, it:
- developed a list of the so -called "consensus core" - that
is, some 2,300 images that are commonly referred to in at least
two of the 10 leading text books that are currently in use in
teaching the survey;
- acquired and processed some 800 images of public domain
objects that are represented in the core;
- developed prototype software capable of supporting web-based
search, retrieval, and presentation functions appropriate to art
history teaching;
- demonstrated the prototype at public meetings of a number of
relevant professional societies as a means of ensuring that key
stakeholders and potential users had some input into the AIC's
development.
In developing and presenting the prototype, a number of
strategic questions emerged about the AIC's core aims and
objectives, its collection scope, collection development
strategies, and about its approaches to data management and
distribution. Significant questions were also raised the
organizational model most likely to sustain and potentially scale
the AIC's activities over a longer period.
The purpose of the review was to examine these questions in
light of the AIC's experiences to date and in the presence of a
range of stakeholders with an interest in developing and
maintaining a community-based initiative committed to
facilitating information exchange and resource sharing amongst
art historian and visual resource professionals.
The review was guided by a discussion document that provided
some structure around the numerous strategic questions that had
arisen for the AIC. The document's structure was based on a
policy framework for developing and maintaining digital
collections. Its contents were tailored explicitly to the
distinctive needs and experiences of the AIC and its key
stake-holding communities.
This document provides a summary of the review.
- Aims and objectives
The AIC aims to:
- facilitate the development and maintenance of a shared
educational resource comprising catalogue records and digital
surrogates for art historical objects;
- support and encourage educational use of this shared resource
in teaching and life-long learning both in art history and other
disciplines; and
- empower visual resource professionals and art historians to
take full advantage of their intellectual and image assets.
To achieve these aims the AIC will:
- develop a shared repository of catalogue records and digital
surrogates for art historical objects that support teaching and
life long learning in art history and other disciplines;
- use the Worldwide web and other electronic means to develop
the repository and to make it accessible for educational
purposes, ensuring wherever possible, that some access is
maintained free of charge or at the lowest possible cost for bona
fide educational uses;
- document and disseminate guidance that may help the art
historical and visual arts communities take maximum advantage of
computer technologies, emerging methods for developing scaleable
and sustainable digital collections, and the law to capitalize on
their intellectual and image assets for the good of their
respective professions; and
- adopt an organizational structure that distributes the costs
involved in developing, maintaining, and disseminating the
resource while leveraging existing investment in appropriate
computing infrastructure and online services.
- Audiences
The AIC seeks through its activities to serve the following
communities:
- teachers and students of art history and other disciplines
that make pedagogical use of art historical objects;
- art historians, visual resource professionals, and others
with an interest in realizing the aggregated value of the
numerous high-quality surrogates that exist in the public domain
or can be cleared of copyright implications; and
- visual resource professionals and institutions with an
interest in sharing the effort involved in developing and
maintaining catalogue records pertaining to art historical
objects.
- Scope of collections
The AIC seeks to develop a shared repository of digital images
and catalogue records pertaining to art historical objects that
are used for teaching in art history and other disciplines.
- Collection strategies
The AIC's collection strategy reflects its community-building
aims. It is envisaged as a distributed effort amongst art
historians and visual resource professionals who seek to reap
collective educational reward from their individual image
resources and expertise.
Rather than simply amassing image content and catalogue
records, the AIC will provide a framework for the development of
discrete collections that serve specific and definable teaching
and learning needs. Although there is little doubt that the AIC's
collections may become an important reference tools for research
and other specialist needs, their evolution is intended to
parallel that of traditional slide libraries which have
historically responded to curricular need.
For images, the AIC will seek to leverage community-owned
resources while avoiding copyright obstacles that have hindered
the development of comprehensive image collections. It will focus
primarily on images of objects in the public domain. It will also
accession in-copyright images where it may readily and without
cost obtain a license to distribute such images for educational
purposes and for the development of educational services and
products. For both kinds of images, the AIC will rely principally
on voluntary contributions from institutions and individuals that
possess them. It will also develop mechanisms that facilitate
such contributions being made while minimizing the costs involved
in their transaction.
For cataloguing content, the AIC will rely upon the
distributed effort of visual resource professionals. Here, too,
it will develop mechanisms that facilitate that shared effort and
help to reduce its inherent redundancy.
The AIC will focus on discrete collections that have definable
uses in art history teaching. It will begin with the so-called
concordance core - that is, the images and associated catalogue
records that relate to the c.2,300 art historical objects that
are referenced in at least two of the ten leading textbooks used
in teaching the survey of art.
Contingent upon its success with the concordance core, the AIC
may develop additional teaching collections as may be determined
by an editorial board of art historians and visual resource
professionals.
- Collection methods
The AIC will be pro-active in developing collections that
serve specific and definable teaching needs. It will prioritize
effort applied to such collections in consultation with an
editorial board and in response to collection development
opportunities as they arise.
Initially, the AIC will start with the so-called concordance
core. Contingent upon its ability to sustain its activities, it
will turn to other collections, for example, as appropriate to
teaching Southeast Asian, Renaissance Architecture, German
Expressionism, etc.
The development of collections that meet discrete teaching
needs is likely to occur in overlapping phases:
- development of a want list of art historical objects required
for a collection (including acceptable substitute objects);
- accession or creation of catalogue records for objects on the
want list; and
- identification and accession of appropriate public domain
images or in-copyright images that may be licensed to the
AIC.
The AIC will not normally seek to acquire image or catalogue
content through subscription, licensing or other fee-paying
means.
The AIC will invest in the creation of image content where
appropriate and where sufficient external funding may be found
for this purpose.
To implement its collection development methods, the AIC will
require:
- An editorial board comprising visual resource professionals
and art historians acting as commissioning agents and as
gatekeepers. As commissioning agents, board members will assist
in defining and developing discrete collections, and in raising
whatever external funding may be require to achieve these tasks.
As gatekeepers, editorial board members will help to review and
prioritize image surrogates, catalogue content, and collection
development ideas as they are offered to the AIC.
- Robust and manageable communications channels that connect
the editorial board to a broader community of visual resource
professionals and art historians. These channels may be used to
solicit catalogue records and appropriate image content, as well
as ideas about potential collection development opportunities.
Members of the wider community may also use these channels to
bring image content, catalogue records, and collection
development ideas unsolicited, to the attention of the AIC.
- Technical and other means for facilitating shared development
of catalogue records, in particular by exploiting the online
catalogues that exist or are in development in stake-holding
institutions.
- Technical and other means for facilitating direct
transmission of digital image surrogates.
- Selection criteria
Selection criteria need to be developed in order to:
- prioritize AIC efforts in developing discrete teaching
collections;
- ensure consistency and quality across image content and
catalogue records derived from numerous sources;
- ensure that costs involved in developing any collection are
predictable and minimized wherever possible; and
- provide guidelines to and create realistic expectations
amongst potential contributors of image content and catalogue
records.
Selection criteria will need to be developed to guide
decisions regarding the teaching collections that may be
developed and the catalogue records and surrogate images that may
be included in such collections.
Guidelines pertaining to selection of specific teaching
collections are likely to emphasize opportunity and costs.
Guidelines pertaining to the image content and catalogue
records that will make up a collection are likely to focus
on:
- the scope of the specific teaching collection;
- benchmark image quality, format, and resolution;
- copyright status of image content and catalogue records;
- suitability of image content and catalogue records for
teaching and learning;
- benchmark structure, format, and contents of catalogue
records; and
- costs of accessioning image surrogates or catalogue record
into the AIC collection.
- Accessioning process
The accessioning process is that by which image content and
catalogue records are created and/or prepared for inclusion in a
distributable collection. At least four accessioning scenarios
are envisaged:
- for image surrogates that do not yet exist in digital
format;
- for image surrogates that do already exist in digital
format;
- for existing catalogue records; and
- for the production of catalogue records where no suitable
records exist.
The effort involved in accessioning will depend upon the
source, format, location, etc. of image content and catalogue
records and may extend to include:
- negotiation and receipt of appropriately signed and
authorized licenses for image content and catalogue records;
- acquisition of non-digital image content for scanning
according to agreed formats, and benchmark standards of quality,
resolution, etc.;
- acquisition of digital images and their manipulation to
achieve agreed formats, and benchmark standards of quality,
resolution, etc.;
- acquisition, review, and where necessary amendment of
existing catalogue records or, alternatively, creation of
appropriate catalogue records; and
- entry of processed digital images and catalogue records into
a distributable database or databases.
In order to assure quality and consistency across its image
content and catalogue records, the AIC will agree the following
standards and develop implementation guidelines to govern their
application:
- boilerplate licenses;
- a range of acceptable formats for images contributed to the
AIC (whether in digital or non-digital formats), including
benchmark standards of quality, resolution, etc.;
- a minimum requirement pertaining to the structure and
contents of catalogue records contributed to the AIC;
- standard image format(s) including benchmark standards of
quality, resolution etc. for post-processed digital image content
(that is image content considered to be ready for inclusion in
the corpus to be distributed by the AIC); and
- standards for the structure and minimum level content
required for post-processed catalogue records (that is catalogue
records considered ready for inclusion in the corpus to be
distributed by the AIC).
In order to implement its accessioning process, the AIC will
require support from at least one but possibly more centers that
agree to act in conformance with AIC accessioning standards and
implementation guidelines. Should the AIC rely entirely on one
center, the center would need to support all of the accessioning
scenarios and accessioning functions described above. Support
from more than one center promises to introduce economies of
scale and would allow individual centers to concentrate on
specific accessioning scenarios and functions (e.g. on the
receipt, amendment, or production of catalogue records; on
processing digital image surrogates; on digitizing image
surrogates contributed in non-digital formats; etc.).
In seeking support from accessioning centers, the AIC would
expect to leverage existing expertise and infrastructure.
- Data dissemination
The AIC's collections may be distributed by multiple third
parties acting under license to the AIC. Such third parties may
include universities, libraries, or other organizations that host
the AIC's collections and make them available for educational use
whether to specific user communities or to a broader public.
This distributed strategy will enable the AIC to leverage
existing investments in appropriate infrastructure and may
mitigate the need for the AIC to maintain such an infrastructure
of its own.
- Use scenarios
The AIC will encourage licensed distributors to support use
scenarios that meet their users' distinctive needs. In this way,
the AIC will encourage different presentations of its collections
as is appropriate for the many different communities of potential
users.
The AIC will require that at least some of its licensed
distributors make the collections available according to some
minimum level criteria determining look, feel, functionality, and
access conditions. Here, preference may be given to a one-size
fits all approach providing, for example:
- free access at least to low-resolution images and brief
catalogue records;
- simple search and retrieval functions operating across the
brief catalogue records;
- some slide-table and side-by-side presentation features;
- support for exchange of catalogue recores; and
- etc.
- Data management
The third parties that are acting to distribute the AIC's
collections will be expected to manage the collections according
to some specified criteria. Such criteria will be developed and
specified in licenses between the AIC and its distributors or in
schedules that may attach to those licenses.
A distributed dissemination strategy may also require that at
least one distributing site be designated as the primary site
responsible for:
- receiving initial updates and amendments to the AIC's
collections and additions to those collections;
- disseminating updates, amendments, and additions to other
licensees; and
- acting as the collection of record for the AIC.
- Rights framework
The AIC is an educational resource. In particular, it is a
collection of digital images and catalogue records that are
distributed for educational use and for the development of
educational services and products.
The AIC is also a community resource. It derives principally
from two sources:
- from image content and catalogue records in the public
domain; and
- from in-copyright image content and catalogue records that
are licensed by copyright holders to the AIC.
The AIC derives from a philosophy that believes that
educational and cultural organizations should not sell their
intellectual and information assets to third parties, especially
where such sale results in those organizations having to
reacquire access to those assets at some additional cost. The AIC
does not, therefore, seek exclusive ownership of or license too
the image content and catalogue records that make up its
collections. Nor does it seek to profit from exploitation of
those assets.
The AIC also recognizes the cost involved in maintaining
high-quality information resources and information services, and,
indeed, in maintaining distributed, community-based efforts.
The AIC requires a rights framework and associated licenses
that reflect these understandings and support its mission. In
particular, the framework and licenses must:
- safeguard the rights and interests of those who contribute
in-copyright material to the AIC;
- give the AIC the right to distribute its collections via
third parties and to reap the economic and other advantages that
stem from this approach; and
- give the AIC the financial flexibility to generate revenues
sufficient to maintaining and where possibly enhancing its
collections.
As part of this rights framework the AIC will require a number
of licenses including licenses: between the AIC and those who
contribute image content or catalogue records to its collections;
between the AIC and those who act under license to distribute its
collections; between distributors of AIC content and the end
users who access that content.
Although it is expected that licenses will be negotiated
independently, it is hoped that licenses of any one type will
reflect principals agreed for that time and may be derived from
boiler-plates. A draft of the principles that may apply to the
types of licenses listed above are set out here.
- Licenses between the AIC and its contributors
The AIC will typically develop contributor licenses for
in-copyright collections of images or catalogue records rather
than for individual in-copyright images or catalogue records.
The AIC will typically require contributors to determine the
copyright status of the image content and catalogue records they
supply and where necessary, to clear any copyrights in that image
content and catalogue records.
The AIC will typically only accept image content or catalogue
records whose copyright status is known to contributors.
The AIC will typically accept image content and catalogue
records of known copyright status and that are either in the
public domain or owned exclusively by the contributor.
Where in-copyright image content or catalogue records are
concerned, the AIC will typically only accept such content where
it can be licensed to the AIC at no charge for distribution by
the AIC or by licensed third parties, for the purposes of
educational use or for the development of educational products
and services.
The AIC will typically only accept in-copyright image content
and catalogue records where it may be licensed to distribute such
content on a cost-recovery basis in the interest of maintaining
and developing the AIC as an educational service and information
resource.
The AIC will not typically seek permission to distribute
in-copyright image content or catalogue records on a for-profit
basis.
The AIC will not typically seek to obtain exclusive
distribution rights in or ownership of any in-copyright image
content or catalogue records.
The AIC will typically seek to assure its contributors that it
will adopt all reasonable means to protect their rights as vested
in the image content or catalogue records they contribute, and to
enforce a similar obligation onto any third party to which the
AIC licenses the right to distribute its collections.
Given AIC's preference for contributors who take
responsibility for determining the copyright status of their
image content or catalogue records, it will need to take on an
educational role and provide guidance to contributors about
rights issues that are likely to be associated with any image
content or catalogue records in their possession
- Licenses between the AIC and its distributors
Forthcoming.
- Licenses between distributors and end users
Forthcoming.
- Organizational options
The AIC should be maintained as a distributed organization
comprising:
- Individuals and institutions willing and able to contribute
image content and catalogue records.
- Accessioning centers that agree to manage receipt of and
process contributed image content and catalogue records.
- Distribution centers acting under license to the AIC to
disseminate its collections for educational use or for the
development of educational services and products.
- An editorial or advisory board comprising visual resource
professionals and art historians.
- Some corporate entity capable of managing funds and of
licensing contributed content and dissemination centers.
Accessioning centers are likely to be self-selecting and
include those institutions that are already involved in
developing collections of digital image content.
Distribution centers are likely to be self-selecting and
include institutions with an interest in developing and
maintaining online image services.
At least two options exist for giving the AIC the requisite
corporate status.
- An existing corporate body (e.g. the ACLS, CLIR, etc.) acts
on behalf of the AIC.
- The AIC incorporate as a not-for-profit corporate
entity.
The former option is preferred.
- Immediate next steps
The review identified several immediate next steps. The first
is to locate suitable image surrogates and catalogue records that
will enable the AIC to complete the concordance core. Further
steps are contingent upon the AIC's success in locating this
content. Should the content not be located, its primary aim (to
build a community resource based on public-domain or freely
licensed image surrogates and catalogue records) may be deemed
unachievable.
- Locate suitable content to complete the concordance core
(April - October 2000). The core comprises some 2,300 art
historical objects. Public domain or rights-cleared images and
catalogue records have been located and processed for some 800 of
these. To complete the core, the AIC needs to locate, accession,
and process images and catalogue for a further 1,500 art
historical objects. A list of the objects required is being
prepared and will be circulated selectively in search of
appropriate image content and catalogue records. It is hoped that
the requisite content may be identified by June 2000.
- Accession and disseminate the concordance core (June -
October 2000). A number of DLF member institutions may be capable
and willing to process the content and to make it available
online. With regard to online service, work was conducted by
Carnegie Mellon University on the development of tools that would
make the AIC collections available online. That work has not
advanced beyond the prototype stage. The AIC will accordingly
need to identify a site capable and willing to provide access to
its core collection.
- Develop appropriate standards, implementation guidelines, and
licensing templates (June - October 2000). The following have
been identified as requiring priority attention.
- Cataloguing standards for fully processed AIC records
expressed in terms of format, minimum level content requirement,
authority controls, etc.
- Minimum requirement for catalogue records contributed to the
AIC (expressed in terms of suitable format(s), minimum-level
content requirements, authority controls, etc.)
- Standards for fully processed AIC images expressed in terms
of format(s), benchmark resolution, quality, etc.
- Minimum requirements for digital images contributed to the
AIC (expressed in terms of suitable format(s), benchmark
resolution, quality, etc.)
- Minimum requirements for non-digital image surrogates
contributed to the AIC (expressed in terms of format(s),
benchmark resolution, quality, etc.)
- Principals and boiler-plate licenses upon which the following
licenses may be based:
- Between the AIC and contributors of image content and
catalogue records
- Between the AIC and those who act under license to distribute
its collections
- Between distributors of AIC content and the end users who
access that content
- Develop appropriate selection criteria:
- To guide decisions about new teaching collections that may be
added to the AIC
- To guide decisions regarding the catalogue records and
surrogate images that may be included in such collections
- Manage promotion of and communication about the AIC. While
the AIC remains in a prototype phase with work on the concordance
core incomplete, there is uncertainty about its long-term future.
So long as that uncertainty exists, official members of the AIC
Executive Committee should alone speak for the AIC whether to
report on its progress or to develop or respond to opportunities
for its further development. The CAA in the meantime has agreed
to investigate the possibility of managing official responses to
any communications that may be directed to the AIC. In the
meantime all correspondences and inquiries requiring response
should be transferred to the DLF acting on behalf of the
Executive Committee until such time as the CAA's role is put into
place.
Official members of the AIC Executive Committee include Max
Marmor, Katie Hollander, and Christine Sundt.
- Participants in the review
Michael Alexander (representing the New York Public
Library)
Ellen Baird (College Art Association)
Susan Ball (College Art Association)
Caroline Beebe (North Carolina State University)
Rebecca Graham (Digitaal Library Federation)
Daniel Greenstein (DLF)
Peter Hirtle (Cornell University)
Katie Hollander (College Art Association)
William Keller (University of Pennsylvania)
Ben Kessler (Princeton University)
Heike Kordish (New York Public Library)
Max Marmor (Yale University)
Christie Stephenson (University of Michigan)
Chris Sundt (University of Oregon)
Ann Whiteside (Harvard University and VRA)
Susan Williams (Yale University)
For further information, please consult the following
pages:
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