I think it would be extremely important to close the gap between AMICO providers and users. Right now, there seems to be a layer of insulation between the two. Jennifer and David try to bridge this gap with occasional communications, but we hear very little from RLG. One would think that at least part of AMICO's hope for success would be to have some sort of customer-driven focus, and to achieve this I think the providers need to be face-to-face with users now and then.

I would want to obseve actual search sessions by typical users to see what problems they run into and what suggestions they have.

I would like to discuss ways to improve searches through tightening (i/e better standardizing) the ways in which the various AMICO contributors use the data fields.

I would like to know more about how users are really using AMICO as this might affect how we choose what works of art to include in coming years. It might not be bad if there was a "suggestion box" for users to send us wish lists of future contributions.

I would think that this kind of data would be invaluable to the writing and direction of future grants that AMICO writes.

Terry Pitts Center for Creative Photography