In addition to being an AMICO Testbed insitution, the University of Alberta Libraries are mounting non-AMICO images in an Internet-accessible (to authenticated users) database, using the DRAWeb interface.

The _database_ of MARC records and field 856-linked images is now ready for use. Our intention however is to develop a projection system that allows these images to be used in a "smart classroom," in the same manner that AMICO images will be used. (The focal point of our AMICO proposal was the creation of a local subset of AMICO images, to be identified by a professor for use in several of her lecture courses in Canadian art history.) Since many/most Testbed institutions will also be projecting images, it seems desirable to post this note here.

Our wish is to follow current pedagogical practise as much possible. Without going to the expense of purchasing an application such as EmbARK, we wish to allow for:

Side-by-side projection of 2 digital images which are not directly linked to eachother (as they could be in PowerPoint). While one can simply use two computers and two projectors for this purpose, this would be expensive and potentially unwieldy. An alternative would be to use

1) One projector in conjunction with software that allows the dynamic selection of two images to be shown side-by-side. One suggestion has been to use frames in Netscape, with separate forward and back controls for each frame.

We would like side-by-side projection to be backed up by

2) the ability to broadcast image(s) on the instructor's workstation to each of the monitors on the students' workstations.

We are also looking for

3) a way to project full images from Netscape (assuming this is the application we use), when images otherwise might have to be scrolled through to be seen in their entirety; or alternatively, an application that will run (spawn) from Netscape and will have all the features described above.

While we're engaged in drawing on local, campus-wide expertise to develop such a system, it's cost-effective (and presumably helpful to our AMICO Testbed partners) for us to ask the AMICO group if any institution has developed such a model. Your comments appreciated! -- Michael May