CAUP Visual
Resources Collection Notes and News
June 24, 2002
Announcement of the MDID (Madison Digital Image Database)
In June, the Visual Resources Collection will make available to CAUP faculty a trial version of the MDID, an image database that provides password-protected web access to text and images for classroom use. Faculty will be assigned a password for this trial period to explore the MDID and consider using it in their classes this coming year.
The College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Visual Resources Collection (VRC) database's role is to catalog and manage the images in the collection. This includes filing information, source records, search functions, and the ability to generate labels and other printed material.
The Madison Digital Image Database (MDID) was developed by the slide curator and computing team at James Madison University. The software was not created to catalog and manage an image collection, but to allow images and associated data to be accessed over the web so that faculty members can create slide shows and students can view them. The MDID was designed to import data from any collection's text records, to incorporate images from that collection's database, and to integrate the text and image in a searchable system for classroom use. It is cross-platform, and can be accessed with a Macintosh as well as PC systems.
All data must first be entered into the Visual Resources Collection's database and then imported into the MDID. The MDID will include all images that may be used legally in classroom lectures and on password-protected review websites. The University of Washington's interpretation of fair-use of images under US copyright law allows the digital reproduction (scanning) of slides made by copywork (from books and periodicals). The Visual Resources Collection makes these copywork-derived images available at low resolution. Original slides donated to the collection are scanned as a higher resolution (and larger size) since the Collection has copyright permission to use these images. Some slides in the Collection are purchased from commercial slide vendors; these slides MAY NOT be scanned and incorporated into the MDID. It may be possible to purchase the right to scan these slides digitally in the future; fees for obtaining such permission are often high and will require additional funding.
Currently, new accessions to the collection are cataloged into the collection's database and are available on the MDID; older slides in the collection are being "retrocataloged" into the database on a small-project basis, according to the needs of the collection, and the availability of student assistance. Faculty who would like to use the MDID in their classes are encouraged to discuss this with the Director. A schedule for cataloging and scanning collection slides can be arranged to accomodate the faculty member's lecturing needs.
December 28, 2001
New circulation methods introduced for student users!
Beginning with winter quarter 2002 (when classes start January 7), student checkout of slides will include the use of "sign-out" cards. Student users will continue to use the checkout form as well. Student should write their last names in pencil on the cards they use. A signed card is then inserted in place of each slide borrowed from the drawers or the racks. Please ask for assistance if necessary! Collection staff will continue to re-file returned slides; the penciled names will be erased and the cards can then be re-used.
Automation of the Collection's slide records is underway....
A
description of the initial phase of the Collection's new database is now
available. Check out the link from the main page of this website.
Created using Microsoft Access, the relational database includes thumbnail
images and a variety of search functions. New accessions to
the Collection and some retrocataloging are being added to the database.
October 1, 2001
Reorganization of the "Collateral Material" and "Allied Arts" section
The Collateral Material and Allied Arts section of the Collection has been reorganized for clarity. This section of the collection is located along the east wall, past the card catalog and the Equipment Room door. Collateral Material (including illustrations from Bannister Fletcher, Maps, and Books) is to the left of this bank of slide cabinets; the "Arts" are to the right, filed by media and then by artist, with an anonymous section at the beginning of each media. The "arts" include (alphabetically in the drawers) Ceramics, Furniture, Glass, Graphics, Industrial and Mechanical Design, Manuscript Illumination, Metal, Painting (with Drawing and Mosaics), Photography, Sculpture, Textiles, and Theater Design. Please ask for assistance if you need help familiarizing yourself with this organization!
EQUIPMENT NEWS
The
Collection has two new Kodak Ektagraphic AMT III slide projectors and several
new universal slide carousels. The sign-out system for equipment has been
updated from library cards to a simple check-out clipboard. Look by the
door to the Equipment Room in the Collection for the clipboard; it is hanging
from the bulletin board. Please ask for assistance if you need it!
The Collection has made some exciting new slide accessions. Here are some of the highlights:
ZGF's Tri-met Light Rail Stations in Portland |
Recent works:
|
 |
Historical
works:
Gerrit Rietveld’s Schroeder
House
Versailles Gardens and Chateau Lutyens’ Viceroy Palace Gardens in New Delhi Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus Suzhou (China): Wangshi Garden and Zhouzheng Garden Bukhara (Uzbekistan): Samanid Mausoleum |
 Forbidden City, Beijing |
|
Recataloging
Student staff also retrocataloged
several groups of older slides from the Collection, including Competition
Designs for the Tribune Tower in Chicago by Loos, Batteux, Kruger/Zess,
Luttwitz, and others, (filed by architect now) and Russian buildings in
Mtskheta, Moscow, and Novgorod.
Many of the older Seattle slides have been organized and relabeled; aerial and territorial views, both historic and recent, of the city's districts and neighborhoods are now filed by site in US/ WA/ Seattle. |
 |
Please let the Director know of any slides you would like to see added to the Collection.
Estimated turn-around time for copywork slide orders from the Collection: 3 weeks.
Slides being
sought:
Didactic material
on Roman Architecture, Greek Architecture, construction technique, science
and technology
New Forms Generated!
Please note the new copystand photography request form in the "hot file" on the bulletin board in the Collection. Use one of these forms in each book you wish to have the Collection make copystand slides from.
The new faculty Slide Check-out forms are also in the "hot file" on the bulletin board. Please use these form each time you remove slides from the Collection. Once you have filled it out, the forms are kept in the same place they have been, on the circulation desk near the re-filing bins.
Please stop by and introduce yourself to the new Director!
Heather Seneff, Director
hs3@u.washington.edu
Chris Collins, Graduate Student Assistant
Heather Comeau, Graduate Student Staff