Economic,
Social, and Technical Models for Digital Libraries of Primary Resources:
the example of the Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO)
published in New Review of Information Networking, #4, 1998, pp 71-91.
by
David Bearman and Jennifer Trant
Archives & Museum Informatics/Art Museum Image Consortium
Footnotes
1. The authors
are partners in Archives & Museum Informatics, a Pittsburgh-based
consulting firm (see /index.html).
Trant also serves as Executive Director of the Art Museum Image Consortium.
Bearman also serves as Director of Strategy and Research for AMICO.
Both have for many years consulted with other consortia of cultural
institutions in the creation and implementation of networked information
services. They wish to thank all those involved in the planning of
AMICO for their contribution to the model articulated here.
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2. This conference was sponsored by the America Council of Learned
Societies, the Coalition for Networked Information, the Council on
Library Resources, the Getty Art History Information Program, and
the Research Libraries Group. Technology, Scholarship and the Humanities:
The Implications of Electronic Information, Summary of Proceedings
(Santa Monica, J. Paul Getty Trust, 1995) 43pp. (ISBN 0-9632932-1-1)
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3. See the Meeting Report, "Initiative on Electronic Imaging & Information
Standards" March 3-4, 1994, Getty Art History Information Program
(AHIP)
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4. Directed by Trant.
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5. Such as the publication of the Introduction to Imaging: issues
in constructing an image database, Howard Besser and Jennifer
Trant, (Los Angeles: Getty Art History Information Program), 1995.
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6. The final report of the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project
is published as: Delivering Digital Images: Cultural Heritage Resources
for Education, The Museum Education Site Licensing Project volume
1, edited by Christie Stephenson and Patricia McClung (Getty Information
Institute, Los Angeles, 1998) 209pp. ISBN 0-89236-509-9
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7. ibid. p.17-35
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8. Maxwell L. Anderson, Director of the Whitney Museum of American
Art (then director of the Art Gallery of Ontario, and liaison for
information technology for the Association of Art Museum Directors),
Bearman and Trant.
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9. AMICO's founding overlapped an extended period of reporting on
the MESL project; although the project formally concluded in June
of 1997, MESL reports were not available until the fall of 1998.
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10. see www.amico.org for full
details about the organization and its activity.
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11. The MESL Management Committee was originally comprised of Anderson,
Bearman, Trant, Howard Besser (then of the University of Michigan),
Clifford Lynch (then of the University of California Office of the
President), and Geoffrey Samuels (then of Muse Educational Media).
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12. A new program manager, Kathleen McDonnell, announced that she
did not want to see MESL grow into an independent organization.
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13. Trant resigned as MESL Project Director in the spring of 1996.
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14. See "The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO), a preliminary report",
March 22, 1997.
<http://www.amico.org/docs/papers/1997/AMICO9703.20.rpt.html>
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15. See David Bearman and Jennifer Trant, "Museums and Intellectual
Property: Rethinking Rights Management for a Digital World," Visual
Resources, Special Issue, Copyright and Fair Use, The Great Image
Debate, Vol. XII, no. 3-4, 1997, 269-280.
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16. These are outlined in the AMICO Distributor Specification. See
<http://www.amico.org/distribute/docs/Dist.Spec.pdf>
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17. AMICO is now providing access to higher education in a beta phase,
with full subscription availability in the fall of 1999. A pilot project
is underway test methods for delivering the AMICO Library to primary
and secondary schools, and to public libraries beginning in the fall
of 1999. See <http://www.amico.org/use.html>
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18. Fees charged by each distributor may vary since they incorporate
both the AMICO license fee (based on user population) and the costs
the distributor charges for its services.
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19. See <http://purl.org/dc>
and the work of the Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum
Information (CIMI) at <www.cimi.org>
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20. See <http://www.amico.org/use.html>
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21. This issue is explored further in D. Bearman and J. Trant, "Authenticity
of Digital Resources: Towards a Statement of Requirements in the Research
Process," D-Lib Magazine, June 1998. <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june98/06bearman.html>