Forecasts

predictions of the cutting edge

 

Digital Library for the Planet

Trudy Levy
Image Integration

Some of us have seen digital imaging and the Internet as an opportunity to provide a repository of the best images of wondrous things accessible to all. It would include not only the most famous pieces of art from largest collections around the world, but also images of history, science and the mundane world. You can already study Mona Lisa, Saturnıs rings and civil war photographs from Cincinnati, if you can find them.

The Net has already become a repository of an amazing number of images, but how do we turn this repository into a Library where you can find things? And how do we get those images not in this public repository either because they have not been digitized or because they are protected. All we need to do is create:

If we did this, we would have a Universal Library. Think of it!

Well, actually I am stealing here. Last week I heard Brewster Kahle*, of Alexa Internet, talk about his dream of a digital library. His Digital Libraries, which would retrieve all their information from the Internet and thus need no books shelves, could be built in Malls with information specialists (librarians) to help you find what you are looking for. It reminded me of the book mobiles of my youth. For you who missed that experience it was a trailer with a librarian and books which went around the rural areas every summer on a weekly basis,so we could check out books. It was great because the librarian really got to know you and would bring books just for you. It was your own customized library. You could do that on the Net. This is not science fiction. In fact it is already being pursued in a number of avenues.

For example in terms of a universal cataloging system, several organizations concerned with information management are creating and establishing standards for classifying and describing things. For images there are several ³controlled² vocabularies such as Getty's Art and Architecture Thesaurus and the Dublin Core is use to organize images into categories. Now on several discussion lists Imagers are discussing image meta data - that which describes the digital image file itself - such as scanning software, file format, proposed use, image size, color space, color profile, original medium.

As far as Intellectual Property rights goes, there is WIPO which is attempting to set world wide standards. There are the court cases. And then one would also hope common sense will step in. As Brewster Kahle said in his talk, we let people take books from the library all the time accept their honorable intention to ³borrow² them. We may need to educate people both the users about ³borrowing² on the net and us the providers that just because we canıt see them, our users are still mostly honorable.

Unfortunately imaging standards are probably the most impossible to determine and it's not that people are not trying to establishing them. Technology just makes the standards obsolete practically before the ink dries. Many of us in the field feel like we are watching a roulette wheel and wishing the ball would land, somewhere. Though I guess evolution is better than stagnation.

But, Portals to bring the information together are already being created. Australia has Picture Australia which acts as a portal to six cultural institutions and universities in Australia. California has the Online Archive which is still in its formative stage but is to become the California Digital Library. Artcyclopedia is a search engine dedicated to museum quality art on the net. It will take you to the web site showing an image of the art you are searching for. As of March last year they had indexed 700 art sites.

So what is lacking. All those images not currently publicly available. Those collections started in the early days when it was thought this new cost - digitization - could be offset by charging for the use of the images. Fortunately many other museums have decided since, as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco expressed it, the Internet was just another display area where they could show the works which they did not have the physical space to exhibit. It can be hoped that those ³protecting² their collections will come to see the benefits, which those who aren'tıt, are reaping. Then there are the collections sitting in all those specialized museums and private collectors, and last but not least, corporations. Those of you in the private sector. How many images does your company own? Donıt forget the historical archives, HR - employee shots, Public Relations and Advertising. I donıt think people realize how many and what variety of images corporations owned in their archives. Think of company picnics circa 1939? What a history trove. Here in California the state is encouraging with grants those with these collections to digitize them and make them available through the Online Archives.

*Those of us with digital assets should become familiar with Brewster Kahle of Alexa Internet and Internet Archive. He has been archiving publicly accessible web sites since 1996 by sending robots through the web taking ³snapshots of pages². So when you get that error code 404 page not found his group the Internet Archive may have it.

At a recent Special Libraries Associations meeting he spoke about his vision for the Internet. In the short version he wants all knowledge to be accessible to all people via the Internet. He called his company Alexa after the Library of Alexandria at one time the repository of all known knowledge. To accomplish this he is branching out, talking to librarians, and exploring how digital collections from all over can be brought together. We could help each other.

1/25/01
 
Image Integration
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