Message-Id: <mailto:199504181643.LAA05397@library.wustl.edu> Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 09:41:29 PDT From: "Cornelia S. King" <mailto:BM.Y01@RLG.STANFORD.EDU> To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
To: EXLIBRIS, IMAGELIB, ARLIS-L, PRINTS-L, and VRA-L From: Cornelia King, Free Library of Philadelphia In re: Cataloging fine printsEarlier this month, I posted a request for information on projects to catalog and scan fine prints. There have been numerous responses, which I promised to summarize on EXLIBRIS. Since the posting eventually went to IMAGELIB, ARLIS-L, PRINTS-L, and VRA-L, I am posting the summary on these lists, too (apologies for the duplication).
1. National Archives of Canada Since 1986, has described ca. 100,000 works of art using an in-house descriptive holding system called ICON (a Hewlett-Packard MINISIS application). The ICON database contains 255 fields for item-level description for a variety of media. E.g., subfield B401 (content) gets one term to describe the primary subject of the image; sample terms: abstract, allegory, animal, cityscape, portrait, seascape).
They have also scanned ca. 20,000 original editorial cartoons using optical disc technology. After 1989, they switched to CD-ROM applications -- have scanned ca. 4,000 color transparencies to date. Holdings are not yet electronically accessible. Contact: Jim Burant, Chief
2. Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum Currently catalogs movie posters. Full MARC records in RLIN, with genre terms from the graphic list plus AAT. A library assistant handles description; a librarian handles subject analysis, genre terms, etc. Provides name access for everyone pictured (to the extent possible) and uniform title access for the title of the movie. Written procedures available. Contact: Emily Bergman, Head Librarian
3. Luis Nadeau suggests his *Encyclopedia of Printing, Photographic and Photomechanical Processes* as a helpful tool. He also recommends the British Columbia Archives as having "one of the nicest examples of digitized collections in the world." (http://www.bcars.gs.gov. bc.ca/bcars.html). The BCA contact is David Mattison.
4. University of Michigan Museum of Art. Currently creating digital images on Photo CDs for their collection of 2000 images. Linking images through their collections management system; also will make them available via Internet. University of Michigan Library School working on a search engine for the images, probably using a wais server (not yet determined). Contact Jeanne Drews, preservation consultant
5. Flatbed Press Uses File Maker Pro, with database layout designed by Katherine Brimberry (director), to record location of prints and details of each print's technique.
6. The Elvehjem Museum at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Selected MIMSY software developed by Willoughby Associates of Chicago, IL to catalog its holdings. MIMSY is based on the Oracle database system. Curator Andrew Stevens says that Willoughby improved the produce and made it easier to use in 1994. One significant advantage of MIMSY is having AAT on-line. Willoughby also offers a data-entry service.
For reasons of economy, the Elvehjem Museum chose to transter slides to Photo CDs, then recast the files into JPEG (the standard currently promoted by the Computers in Museums Group supported by the Getty). The museum plans to mount the databse on Internet. Contact: Andrew Stevens, Curator of Prints
7. California Historical Society Creating item-level records in RLIN (exploiting cut-and-paste capability). Uses AACR2, LC Name Authorities, LC Thesaurus of Graphic Terms (AAt and LCSH as needed). They scan photographs. Contact: Robert MacKimmie, Curatorial Director of Photography
8. Luna software Someone at Art Institute of Chicago recommends consultant Kevin Donovan of Luna Software.
9. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley Currently doing collection-level AACR2 records in MARC VM for 2-3,000 collections (3 million+ images). Recommends not doing item-level cataloging, but rather recording information in delimited text or a relational database for local searching, which then "could migrate into whatever formats become standard down the road." In that regard, they are in the R & D phase of linking collection-level records, finding aids, and digital images. Contact: James Eason, Pictorial Cataloging Project
10. Silver Image Management Provides consulting and other collection management services for collections of visual materials. Founder Marcy Silver Flynn is a former Senior Cataloger in the Prints and Photographs Division of LC.
11. Philadelphia Museum of Art Uses Collection software (Vernon Systems, Aukland, New Zealand), pc-based software customized for their needs. Contact: John Ittman
12. University of Georgia Libraries Scanning slides; storing images as uncompressed Tiff files and compressed JPEG files on CD-ROMs. Suggests VTLS or OCLC's Site Search software for access. (They're in the process of deciding.) Their WWW site is http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu Contact: Bob Henneberger, Computer services
13. University of California, San Diego Catalogs graphic materials on OCLC Contact: Elizabeth Robinson
Also: Article recommended: Esther G. Bierbaum, "MARC in Museums: Applicability of the Revised Visual Format," *Information Technology and Libraries * 9 (Dec. 1990): 293-99.