Message-Id: <mailto:199407122100.QAA20313@library.wustl.edu> Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 16:15:13 -0400 From: Pamela Mason <mailto:pmason@NALUSDA.GOV> Subject: Re: List of current imaging projects To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB <mailto:IMAGELIB@ARIZVM1.BITNET>
On Fri, 1 Jul 1994, Robert Rosenberg wrote:> Have you considered creating thumbnails--GIFs or some other format--and using
> them for Internet browsing, allowing users to download full images they
> choose for serious viewing/research? In that case the speed issue is less
> significant. How big are the TIFFs?
>
>
> Bob Rosenberg
> Thomas A. Edison Papers
> Rutgers University
> New Brunswick, NJ 08903
> mailto:rarosenb@gandalf.rutgers.edu
>
NAL has a joint project with the University of Pittsburgh to access an image database mounted on a server at Pitt via Mosaic. We are actively soliciting participants in this experiment which will go online sometime this summer. A brief description follows. *ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ* | Pamela Mason, Project Manager | National Agricultural Library |
| Electronic Information Initiative | Information Systems Division |
| mailto:pmason@nalusda.gov | 10301 Baltimore Blvd. |
| Phone: (301) 504-6813 | Beltsville, MD 20705-2351 |
| Fax: (301) 504-7473 | |
*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ*ÿ* NAL Photo Image ProjectCooperators: University of Pittsburgh School of Library and Information Science and Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service (MSU).
Content: Two collections: 1,000 hand-colored botanical prints from Curtis' Botanical Magazine (1787-1904) and 1,000 slide images (MSU- supplied) of plant pests and diseases.
Platforms: For online delivery at Pittsburgh, a Sun SPARC workstation was selected. The CD-ROM is to be done by NAL and will be developed for the IBM PC and clones.
Image Database: is being developed at Pittsburgh using ONTOS object-oriented software. It is currently being tested with sample data from each collection.
Image Resolutions/Formats: Resolutions of 24-Bit Color and "thumbnail" sketches will be supported in multiple formats. Kodak PhotoCD format is the original scanning format; Pittsburgh is converting this to TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), which was selected as the base interchange format. TIFF files can be converted on-line, at the users' request to other formats (PCX, GIF, etc.). The CD-ROM will supply TIFF images only. Public domain image conversion programs may also be supplied in both platforms.
Interface: A file browsing system is being developed at Pittsburgh using text-based indexing . Users will browse on descriptions and download lower resolution images ("thumbnail") to see if this is what they want; they can then request in the higher resolution.
Communications Format: The database is being developed to allow the future capability of linking with bibliographic record formats used to exchange data among library systems worldwide. A custom file transfer protocol has been developed at Pitt and a Microsoft Windows client. The server supports Z39.50 queries.
Indexing/Subject Access Points: Terms in the descriptive text have been used to provide access points to the images. Descriptive terms from the Royal Horticultural Society's Dictionary of Gardening (1992) have been used to supplement the text terms.
Audience: land-grant university libraries and their clientele, arboretums and garden centers, artists, botanists, entomologists, historians, teachers, Cooperative Extension Service Agents, and homeowners.
Estimated Release Dates: Late Summer, 1994 (Online); Fall/Winter, 1994 - 95, (CD-ROM)
NAL Contact: Pamela R. Mason, Information Systems Division, 10301 Baltimore Blvd., Beltsville, MD 20705-2351; PH: (301)504-6813; Internet: mailto:pmason@nalusda.gov