Creating an Ideal Image Library

Website and Database

Becky Bristol

Introduction We know that pictures provoke reaction,

stimulate ideas, rekindle memories. They are powerful instruments in story telling, teaching, propaganda, and numerous other fields. Therefore, it is important that libraries provide access to images which illustrate ideas, even abstract ones like hunger, or the experience of hunger...if we can index this aspect of the picture, we make it easily available to users requiring such an image: we make our collection more accessible. Krause 1998

What is an Image Library? Collection of images that have a schematic

classification system. Typically a non-profit institution such as

public library, academic and museum libraries, or special collection libraries.

Image libraries are committed to developing standards and providing educational tools for research and teaching.

What are some of the problems? Image Libraries have no standards for

cataloguing images. There is no controlled vocabulary or

thesauri. Images are difficult to translate to text. Users knowledge of images and

technology is extremely varied.

How to solve these problems: Establish standards for image descriptions. Create an indexing scheme. Know the user of the image library. Understand how the user will search . Understand what images a user will need. Understand what services a user will want.

Image Libraries Three areas of consideration when developing a

usable image library database:

User image needs Content Management of an Image Collection Services

Image Libraries Evaluate and consider the set up of the

following four sites:

http://diglib.princeton.edu/ http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex http://www.nypl.org/digital/index.htm http://ksa.wmc.ohio-state.edu/

What needs to be considered: Understand how the user will search for

images. Descriptions or depictions.

Understand how images will be catalogued. Concept or content

Understand and explore search tools.

User image needs and retrieval needs: Fidel (1997) states specific fundamental

issues have been ignored: What are the differences between image and

text retrieval? What image attributes are important for

retrieval? What are the characteristics of users queries

for images?

User image needs and retrieval needs: Fidel proposed the Data Pole and Object

Pole as a source for defining the descriptions.

User image needs and retrieval needs:DATA POLE OBJECT POLE

Images provide information Images are objects

Relevance criteria can be determined ahead of time User will recognize relevance criteria “when they see it”

Relevance criteria are specifications of which the user is aware Relevance criteria are latent, and are invoked when viewing images

It is possible for a user to explain why an image is relevant Users may find explaining the relevance of an image difficult

Images can be retrieved using text, and subject headings It may be difficult to find text or subject heading to retrieve an image

Color, shape, and texture are important information in retrieving images

Color, shape and texture are not important in retrieving an image

Images must include the same subject headings to satisfy the same need

Two different images may satisfy the same need

Ofness often equals aboutness Ofness is likely to be different from aboutness

Biographical attributes are not likely to play a role Biographical attributes are important for relevance assessment

In order to satisfy a request one or more image is required One image is sufficient in satisfying a request

Does not require browsing results Requires browsing results

Browsing is time consuming Browsing can be done quickly

User image needs and retrieval needs: Princeton http://diglib.princeton.edu/

“digitized research information for the purpose of preservation and to enhance access.”

patron select books to be digitized for the image library collection, establishing a user based collection development.

Provides images with research supported data. Does not separate the cataloguing differences

between books and images. Search tools are limited.

User image needs and retrieval needs: Princeton: http://diglib.princeton.edu/

User image needs and retrieval needs: Princeton: http://diglib.princeton.edu/

Boolean search operators Search materials, collections, images or text Keyword

Title Subject Name Genre Description

User image needs and retrieval needs: Princeton: http://diglib.princeton.edu/

Search for images with the word italy 0 results

Search for images with italian and manuscripts and 1500 0 results

User image needs and retrieval needs: Yale:

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/

Digitization of rare books and manuscripts. Provides images with research supported data. Does not separate the cataloguing differences

between books and images. Search tools seem broader than Princeton.

User image needs and retrieval needs: Yale:

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/

User image needs and retrieval needs: Yale:

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/ Keyword search

All keywords Keywords or Exact phrase or name

Advance search Image ID search Collection search

User image needs and retrieval needs: Yale:

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/

Search for images with the word italian 15 pages of results

Search for images with italian manuscripts painting 77 pages of results

User image needs and retrieval needs: NYPL:

http://www.nypl.org/digital/index.htm Provides images with research supported data. Rare and unique books, primary sources Does separate the cataloguing differences

between books and images. Search tools are broad.

User image needs and retrieval needs: NYPL: http://www.nypl.org/digital/index.htm

User image needs and retrieval needs: NYPL:

http://www.nypl.org/digital/index.htm Keyword search Advance search

Image ID, Standard Reference or NYPL Call Numbers Source title Date Range Field Search Center or Division Search

User image needs and retrieval needs: NYPL:

http://www.nypl.org/digital/index.htm

Search for images with the word italian 62 pages of results

Search for images with italian painting 2,339 results

User image needs and retrieval needs: Ohio State School of Architecturehttp://ksa.wmc.ohio-state.edu/

Images of architecture, provided by users and vendors.

Provides images with research supported data. Does separate the cataloguing differences

between books and images. Search tools are broad.

User image needs and retrieval needs: Ohio State School of Architecture:http://ksa.wmc.ohio-state.edu/

User image needs and retrieval needs: Ohio State School of Architecture:http://ksa.wmc.ohio-state.edu/

Keyword Search Advance Search Boolean Search Browse Search Combined Search/browse

Subject headings Sub-categories

User image needs and retrieval needs: Ohio State School of Architecture:http://ksa.wmc.ohio-state.edu/

Search for images with the word italian 267 results

Search for images with italian churches 1500 11 results

User uses to identify images? Basic image query is based on:

Title Artist Movement Location Origin of artist Time period

User uses to identify images? Enser and McGregor (1992) analyzed

2,722 queries from an image library, and concluded all queries could be placed into four categories: Unique Unique with refiners Non unique Non unique with refiners

Content management systems: Standards for image libraries have been

created by: MDA Getty Research Institute Visual Resource Association International Committee for Documentation

Content Management Indexing schemes have been created by:

Art and Architecture Thesaurus Union List of Artists Name Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic

Materials ICONCLASS

Content Management Things to consider when developing a

content management system: Understand who the user is and the method in

which the user will search Image data classification and representation:

content, or concept. Reaction and interaction among images and

search tools.

Content Management Concept cataloguing is based on controlled

vocabulary and thesauri Content cataloguing is based on

classification attributes; color, shape, pixel size, or text descriptors

Content Management Fields to consider that a user may want to search:

artist title description of the art piece, is this the exterior facade, detail of a

painting? date location of the art piece medium subject heading vendor of image or photographer copyright notes/or comments who scanned the image original source (slide, transparency, book) size of the art work art movement image id number

Content Management Create a usability survey, in order to

prioritize what is important. The survey will not determine if the the

data has been entered correctly but it will assist in management and organization.

Services How can an image library provide services to

assist a user? tutorial about how to search the collection tutorial on how to download into power point tutorial on how to do basic color correction and cropping

of images explanations on appropriate image sizes 768 on the greatest side for power point publication of an image should be done from a high

resolution tiff digital images can be printed onto slides thumbnails can not be used for power point or

publication classes on how to give good power point presentations

Services: Image library website should contain:

light box – to store the images editing site- edit data that is already attributed to the image, or create personal

notes direct down load into power point direct download into html format perhaps a photo album concept full size images zoom and navigate image rotate select and crop a part of an image general and basic color correcting shopping cart for mass download form and shopping cart for purchasing images form for digital image rights and reproductions form for translating digital image into slide/color photocopy image size re-format form for tiff request form for book stand or copy stand photography form for burning cd/dvd

Conclusion: “Research in this area will extend the

general understanding of image intermediation so that we can develop effective and appropriate tools and processes to aid in the provision of visual resources reference to inform the creation of image meta data and to design interfaces to support image seeking and use” (Goodrum 2002)

Conclusion: Images can provide visual affirmation and

data that is unique and essential, it is important that images be respected.