Introduction to Art Image Access: Issues, Tools, Standards, Strategies

Citation

Brown, B. (2003), "Introduction to Art Image Access: Issues, Tools, Standards, Strategies", Library Review, Vol. 52 No. 2, pp. 88-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530310462242

Studies have shown that, after the element of creator/maker/artist, end‐users tend to search for art images by subject matter and content. Searches for images on the Internet can be time‐consuming, frustrating and often prove fruitless. However, as more organisations seek to make their collections available for consultation online, and as end‐users can be defined as anyone with access to WWW, the effective cataloguing of images has probably never before been so urgent, or so challenging.

The impetus for this new publication Introduction to Art Image Access comes from the art information community’s need for practical guidelines on how to lead end‐users online to relevant images of art and architecture. Published as part of the Getty Research Institute Publication Program’s “Introduction to” series, the publications aim to tackle complex issues and tools relating to the production, management and dissemination of cultural heritage information resources. Although this book is principally aimed at professionals working in museums and galleries, the content is highly relevant to information professionals involved in digitising and making access available online to visual resources generally, for example, material held in special collections departments and local studies collections within academic or public libraries.

The publication consists of four essays by leading experts providing strategies for effectively employing metadata standards and controlled vocabularies in order to provide accurate access to images of works of art via subject analysis and description. The first essay attempts to define subject access and give an overall view of the problems involved and possible solutions. The next essay considers the practical implementation of metadata schemas and controlled vocabularies. Essay three concentrates on the key role played by those analysing and indexing images of works of art, looking particularly at tools and methods for iconographic analysis and description, for example, ICONCLASS. The final author considers the complexities of art information, such as the confusion caused by multiple titles, problems of dating and even movement of works of art around different locations. She also looks at the means and routes by which searchers look for images and the ways in which librarians and curators can aid more effective searching.

This is an extremely useful publication, which is likely to help curators and information professionals involved in the exciting, but challenging field of making available access to images online. An annotated list of tools, a glossary and selected bibliography are also included. The emphasis of this book is on the provision of practical advice within a broad discussion of the issues relating to providing effective access to images of art. Emphasis is laid on the importance of using appropriate metadata schemas and controlled vocabulary in order to create good art information systems, yet at the same time refraining from using overly complex data structures which may further impede the path of the cataloguer and end‐user. These issues are all at the cutting‐edge and will help us all to forge a common and effective way forward.