[Insightl] ArtSTOR interoperability / "Offline Viewer" issues

Mon Aug 2 20:19:18 EDT 2004

David:  Thanks for responding.  I know that the ARTStor folks follow this 
list, so it's good for as many institutions as possible to make their 
diverse needs and priorities known.   I did get a note from James Shulman 
after my original posting, saying they were in the process of preparing a 
statement addressing the interoperability question.

I also wanted to ask folks on this list who are at institutions that have 
tested or licensed Artstor whether they are using the Artstor "Offline 
Viewer" for classroom presentations.   My understanding is that art history 
instructors and faculty here at Columbia have all pretty much accepted 
Powerpoint as the standard for classroom use at this point.  And although 
some of them would very much like to use the higher-quality versions of 
Artstor images, they are resistant -- initially at least -- to using the 
Artstor Offline Viewer, particularly if it means having to migrate their 
entire presentation over to it.

So ... once Artstor does in fact allow for interoperability with local and 
other national systems and our faculty can easily search and 'discover' 
Artstor content along with other image content, we still need to make sure 
that faculty can easily make use of the Artstor images they've 
found.  Otherwise we'll continue to get pressure to scan our own slide 
collections locally so they can display higher quality images in the 
classroom using Powerpoint.

Do others have any tips or experiences on this topic they could share?  Is 
this going to be just a transitional problem?

[Sorry if this stuff about Artstor seems "off message" for a lot of Insight 
users; it actually is a pretty significant issue for those of us who are 
trying to figure out whether and how to introduce Artstor to our campuses 
when we've already built an image discovery & delivery strategy around 
Insight.  And it's not like there's a glut of other postings, now is there? ;]

Stephen Paul Davis
Director, Libraries Digital Program
Columbia University

At 12:34 PM 8/2/2004, David Lower wrote:
>Thank you, Stephen, for raising dialogue about using both Insight and
>ARTstor.  I might offer an even stronger differentiation between your choice
>#2, which is the way ARTstor positioned itself in sales presentations until
>this year, and #'s 3 and 5, which are what I might put in the category of
>"almost, but not quite bearable".
>
>I agree with Susan, that the user experience must be considered as primary.
>Though there may be some nifty political or contractual maneuvering that
>could be done to find some compromise alternative, anything short of a
>single access point for digital media (in Insight) will only confuse and
>discourage use of the technology.
>
>The context as we see it is this: many faculty here at Emory have been happy
>and comfortable using slides, so any digital alternative to traditional
>methods must offer real benefits that outweigh the cost/labor of transition.
>In my opinion, learning two different software systems makes this cost too
>great (not to mention the licensing costs!) for any benefit to justify it.
>
>Please let us know how we can participate in some form of community action
>on this matter.
>
>David Lower
>Emory ITD
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: insightl-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
>[mailto:insightl-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Susan Jane Williams
>Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:21 AM
>To: Stephen Paul Davis; insightl at mailman.yale.edu
>Subject: Re: [Insightl] ArtSTOR interoperability
>
>I'm glad Stephen has raised this, and in such a cogent manner. I agree with
>him about choices 2, 3, and 5. What we must not loose sight of, and what we
>must remind both Luna and ARTStor about, is the user habits of those faculty
>we serve _today_. Working in a digital environment will surely change work
>habits and searching and discovery in the future, but for now many of us
>encounter frustrated faculty who thought (mistakenly at this stage) that
>working digitally was going to be faster and easier (no matter what we may
>have told them up front). The primary goal for many of them is not
>serendipitous discovery of something new, but a way to gather their
>accustomed materials together and use in an easy interface. The moment any
>scenario has them using more than one interface it becomes problematic. I do
>think this will change and I do think as these systems mature, broader
>searching and more adventurous use will be a benefit. However we must
>satisfy what the faculty need and want (and are able to use) today, not what
>we think they should want.
>Cheers
>Susan
>
>Susan Jane Williams
>Cornell
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>
> > Date: Mon Jul 26 15:42:23 EDT 2004
> > From: "Stephen Paul Davis" <daviss at columbia.edu>
> > Subject: [Insightl] ArtSTOR interoperability
> > To: insightl at mailman.yale.edu
> >
> >
> >
> > Insight-Folks:
> > My understanding from the folks at ArtSTOR is that they are currently
> > trying to define what they might be able to 'expose' externally for
> > metasearching and also what they might allow to be harvested for local
> > use. Since these issues are clearly of interest to a number of
> > potential Insight/ArtSTOR customers, including Columbia, I'm wondering if
> > we couldn't start a bit of discussion here about what we would in fact
> > want under those scenarios.
> > I don't know how far others have already gone in terms of defining their
> > requirements in this area or in direct discussions / negotiations with
> > ArtSTOR about this. If some Insight customers have already
> > made proposals along these lines, perhaps they would share with the
> > list? In any event, let me take a quick stab to see if there's any
> > consensus about what Insight customers' options and preferences might
> > be.
> > Here's a starter set of theoretically possible ArtSTOR access options for
> > Luna Insight customers:
> > 1) Local
> > loading of both ArtSTOR images and metadata in local Insight
> > systems
> > 2) Local
> > access to remote ArtSTOR-in-Insight collections via the Insight interface
> > (as e.g., AMICO has been available)
> > 3) Local
> > access to locally or remotely-stored ArtSTOR-in-Insight metadata and
> > thumbnail images (only), with the capability of linking directly from the
> > thumbnail to the full-size version in the native ArtSTOR-in-ArtSTOR
> > interface.
> > 4)
> > Metasearching by authorized institutions or service providers via
> > software such as Metalib or Encompass for Resource
> > Collections, using either HTTP, XML, or Z39.50
> > 5)
> > Harvesting of ArtSTOR metadata and thumbnails via OAI-PMH by authorized
> > institutions or service providers (if feasible, using a metadata standard
> > more appropriate to art images than Dublin Core), with the ability to
> > link through directly to the images in the native ArtSTOR
> > interface.
> > ---
> > These non-mutually-exclusive approaches would of course differ
> > significantly in their difficulty  complexity and in the level of
> > service provided to end-users.
> > I would venture that Columbia's and many others' preference would be #2,
> > with #3 an acceptable alternative. In addition, we feel that #5 is
> > also of great potential benefit given that there will always be image
> > collections that are not going to be available via Insight and that at
> > least some campuses (and perhaps other service providers
> > organizations) will want to offer their communities as complete a
> > discovery tool for images as possible.
> > So, let's pretend you suddenly had enough money to subscribe to ArtSTOR
> > or in fact have already scraped it together -- how would you prefer
> > to access ArtSTOR's collections? Any other thoughts,
> > suggestions?/Stephen
> >
> > ______________________________
> > Stephen Paul
> > Davis
> >
> > Director, Libraries Digital Program
> > 207A Butler Library
> > Columbia University
> > 535 W. 114th Street
> > New York, NY 10027
> > email: daviss at columbia.edu
> > phone: (212) 854-8584
> > fax: (212) 854-0089
> > ______________________________
> >
> >
>
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