Beth Sandore
Associate Professor
Coordinator, Digital Imaging Initiative
454 Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
1301 W. Springfield Ave.
University of Illinois
Urbana, Illinois 61801
Tel. 217.333.2592
Fax  217.244.7764
Net  sandore@uiuc.edu
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/faculty/sandore.htm
http://images.grainger.uiuc.edu

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 13:17:40 -0600 (CST)
From: Ann Hanlon <a-hanlon@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
To: sandore@uiuc.edu
Subject: AMICO Q&A

On Thursday, November 19, The Digital Imaging Initiative at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a workshop to introduce the
AMICO database and demonstrate sample search strategies. Approximately
twelve representatives from several departments attended, including
faculty from the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Krannert Art Museum,
the College of Agriculture, Area Studies Libraries, the Art and
Architecture Library, and the Curator of Slides. After a demonstration of
search strategies for AMICO, we opened the floor for questions, several of
which were discussed at length. Following is a list of the inquiries and
suggestions those present made:

1. Can we find out more about the scope information the digital
materials each museum contributed to AMICO cover and how those
contributions relate to the rest of each museum's collections? 
2. People have concerns about how long the images will be available, even
though the contract focuses on long-term availability. 
3. What about images that we download for classes? Can we keep them even
if we decide not to renew our contract?
4. How often are new images added to the database? How will we be informed
of these updates?
5. How likely is it that AMICO will make enhancements to the search engine
in the future? For example, implement vocabulary support, implement
content based searching (color, shape, texture). 
6. Knowing the right terms to search in AMCIO is difficult; could each
museum provide a list of keywords that describe the images they have
contributed in the AMICO database?
7. The lack of name or term standards across the database makes it
extremely challenging to execute comprehensive searches. What kinds of
improvements are going to be made to AMICO to facilitate this? What kinds
of metadata production standards are AMICO members able to adopt in order
to make their metadata more suitable for public access?
8. We would like to request that certain materials in a museum's
collection be digitized. How can we give AMICO museums this feedback?
9. How do AMICO museums want us to give them credit when we use their
images on another controlled access website?
10. Can students keep AMICO images in their portfolios? If yes, for how
long? 
11. The search tip from the HELP menu for Advanced search using Creator
and the term "hellenistic" does not work. However, Advanced search using
Date and the term "hellenistic", etc. does work.

12/1/98