NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 24 number 3 - Spring 2004

By Robert Burton, Special Collections

Anyone who has wrestled with a shoebox full of old family photographs recognizes the problems involved in preserving, identifying, and organizing such collections. Libraries face the additional challenge of making image collections as accessible as possible. Until now, researchers wishing to use collections of photographs and other visual resources have had to visit a library or archive in person, to rely on less than ideal reference tools for finding images, and to comply with various restrictions on access and handling. Using image collections for classroom instruction has been difficult at best. Thanks, however, to the Internet and advances in digital-imaging technology, these collections are now being made accessible on the Web for use in teaching and as primary sources in historical research.

To meet the challenge of providing better access to its visual materials, the NCSU Libraries has acquired Luna Imaging's Insight software. Insight will enable online access to historical photographs from the University Archives Photograph Collection and to images from a new subscription to the AMICO (Art Museum Image Consortium) Library. These two collections will put a vast store of historical and art images within easy reach of the campus community.

The University Archives Photograph Collection, with approximately 250,000 images, is one of the most frequently used collections in Special Collections at the NCSU Libraries. It documents the history of North Carolina State University from its founding in 1887 to the present. The collection covers the growth and development of NCSU and its service to the state, depicting administrators, faculty, and alumni; campus buildings; athletics; military training; noteworthy visitors and events; and student life. A significant part of the collection highlights the agrarian history and rural sociology of North Carolina through NCSU's involvement in extension services, including 4-H Youth Development and Home Demonstration work.

The AMICO Library (http://www.amico.org/) is an online collection of more than 100,000 works of art from around the world. This collection of digital images, text, and multimedia represents a broad range of works from the collections of AMICO member institutions. Cultures and time periods represented range from contemporary, Native American, and Inuit art to Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Japanese, and Chinese works. Many images include multiple views, enhanced textual documentation, and additional multimedia, such as curatorial commentaries, video clips, conservation history, provenance details, and exhibition or publication history.

California-based Luna Imaging was founded in 1993 by the former director of the Getty Art History Information Program. Its Insight software is a digital-image database management tool designed for accessing and using image collections over the Internet. Insight manages visual collections of all sizes and types, from photographs and maps, to design and architectural drawings, to video and audio clips. It was developed in collaboration with academic researchers, educators, and museum professionals. Collections can be shared among institutions that use the Insight software. When a collection is selected, Insight presents the contents of that collection as a series of thumbnail images, along with the data that describes each item. Users can browse the thumbnails or conduct searches and then view high-resolution images with complete descriptive information. Other features allow the user to zoom in on an image, to annotate an image, and to create customized slide shows with arrangements for image comparisons.

Photographs selected from the University Archives require some preparation before scanning. Images are cleaned, if necessary, and then placed in a transparent, chemically stable enclosure to provide physical support and protection from handling. Other steps taken at this time, while not necessary for scanning, help to ensure the long-term preservation of the photographs. Then the images are scanned in the NCSU Libraries Digital Media Lab, added to Insight, and cataloged. Library staff members contributing to this project are Herman Berkhoff (Digital Media Lab), Robert Burton (Special Collections), Jackie Dean and Jacquie Samples (Cataloging), Rachel Kuhn (Design Library), Shirley Rodgers and Troy Simpson (Systems), and James Jackson Sanborn and Deborah Westmoreland (Digital Library Initiatives).

Staff are finding that identifying information is lacking for many of the photographs. In the coming months, the Libraries will be asking the NC State community for help in describing the subjects of certain images in the collection. Watch for announcements about the University Archives Photograph Collection on the Libraries' Web site, or contact Robert Burton by calling (919) 515-2273 or sending an electronic-mail message to robert_burton@ncsu.edu to learn more about the project. Making the library's "shoebox" more accessible is a massive undertaking, but the end result will benefit students, faculty, alumni, and scholars.