University of Washington
School of Art
Visual Services

DIGITAL IMAGING
last updated 1 November 2007

Our digital image order form, which is used when requesting that images be shot using our digital copystand, is now available online. It is a PDF document.

SoA Visual Services, which includes the Image Library (SoAIL; formerly the Art Slide Library) and the Instructional Resource Room (SoAIRR; formerly the Art Media Center), is in the midst of the transition from analog images (35mm slides) to digital images. This web page is intended to provide information and periodic updates about this transition as it progresses both in the SoA and throughout the UW.

An article in the Autumn 2004 SoA newsletter, Artifacts, introduced our digital transition.

Jeanette Mills, SoA Director of Visual Services, attended the 06 October 2004 SoA Art Council meeting and provided a handout to everyone attending. The handout gave more information about plans for our digital transition.

Using money from the Fund for Innovation & Redesign (FIR) grant, of which SoA Visual Services is a part, we built a digital imaging work area in the Art Media Center for Visual Services staff. This space was used for creating digital images for current quarter student review and for editing other digital images that become part of our digital image database. In September 2006, the Art Media Center was moved from room 116 to room 10 in the Art Building, and the digital imaging workroom is adjacent to this space. The Art Media Center has been renamed as the School of Art Instructional Resource Room (SoAIRR).

Ultimately, a portion of the digital images in our database will be contributed to the UW Image Bank, which was created with the FIR grant and will be available as a CONTENTdm database hosted by UW Libraries. The UW Image Bank will be formally released in Winter Quarter or Spring Quarter 2007.

During October 2004, Visual Services staff asked SoA faculty to respond to a survey in order to help us determine the level of interest in digital imaging. The survey was available online or in hard copy. Results showed that 37 of 45 faculty responded (82%). Of those who responded, 90% said that they were interested in using or were already using digital images.

Jeanette gave an informal presentation about the digital imaging transition at the all-faculty meeting on 09 November 2004. During that presentation she strongly recommended that everyone read the cover article in the September 2004 CAAnews titled "The Case for Digital Images" (reprinted with permission from CAA and the author). Some additional points made by Jeanette were:

• Determining workflow has been a huge challenge. We worked with a consultant, Trudy Levy, to help us figure this out, and it still is a work in progress. We currently have multiple workflows; see the links to them below.


• Digital does not mean instant. In fact, processing images for current electronic image reserve (in other words, for student review) is taking approximately five working days for an average group of twenty slides. In the future, requests for slide scans to be added to the digital image database will likely take two weeks, which is the same as current slide requests.


• Our goal is to create a digital image database shared by all faculty, which will provide the images needed for teaching. We primarily are focusing on School of Art image needs, but we also are collaborating with other campus collections to build campus-wide digital image resources.


• To reach our goal will take several years, at least, and will require many incremental steps. During this lengthy transition period the Art Slide Library will continue to maintain and build the collection based on faculty requests.

As mentioned above, we have developed multiple workflows over the last 2 1/2 years. Here are links to them:
Phase 1: Cataloging & Cleaning
Phase 2: Scanning & Editing OR Phase 2: Two Cat Digital Editing OR Phase 2: Digital Copystand
Phase 3: MDID Derivatives
Electronic Image Reserves Part 1
Electronic Image Reserves Part 2

We have chosen the Madison Digital Image Database (MDID) as our software, as is noted in documents mentioned above. This software combines the ability to search for images, build lectures, present lectures, and create sets of images for student review. For more information about this software, go to the MDID home page. Faculty who still prefer PowerPoint will be able to download images, singly or in groups, from MDID and load them into their presentations. We recommend that people also look into the ARTstor Offline Image Viewer (OIV), which is free, as an alternative to PowerPoint since the OIV allows for zoomable images.

Scanning for full classes is being done through Two Cat Digital. We out-source this work because the volume (typically more than 1000 slides per class) is more than we can handle with current staffing and workload. All scanning for electronic image reserves is done in house, and all image editing, whether scanned by us or by Two Cat Digital, is also done in house.

We have created a one-page document that describes the process of full-course slide scanning. We have another document that lists the courses for which high-resolution scanning has been done, either for electronic image reserves (Eres) or for all images used in class.

Several people have asked us for information about our slide scanning specifications, so we have put together a one-page summary.

At least a month during Summer Quarter 2005 was spent on upgrading our Filemaker Pro (FMP) databases. We realized that the databases needed to be more compliant with data standards such as the VRA Core and Dublin Core as well as with the data dictionary designed for the collaborative Image Bank project. All of these allow us to share data more consistently. Jeanette Mills, SoA Director of Visual Services, presented a paper at the 2006 Visual Resources Association conference about the transformation of the databases.

We use three FMP databases daily: our Image database is for image cataloging; our Creator database is for information about artists, architects, and other creators; and our SlideImages database is for recording metadata about digital images. Selected information from the Slides and Creator databases is exported to the School of Art MDID. We created a table that shows how our FMP data maps to our MDID and to the different data standards.

Also during Summer Quarter 2005, we were able to purchase a high-quality digital camera because of generous donations from three people: Frederick Johnson and Bob and Dona Anderson. This camera is to be used on our copystand while tethered to a computer, which will allow us to do direct digital capture. Regular use of the digital copystand did not begin until Winter Quarter 2007 since the Art Building had to have an ethernet upgrade completed and we had to create a workflow for this new process. Those who are interested in camera equipment may want to know what we purchased: a Canon EOS 20D digital SLR camera body, a Canon EF-S 17-85mm lens, and a 1gb compact flash card for using the camera off the copystand.

We have calculated the full labor costs of creating a digital image made from an already existing 35mm slide. The total cost for slides sent to Two Cat Digital for scanning is $8.15, while the total cost for in-house scanning is $7.48. The overall average is $7.81 per image. These figures include all the steps it takes to create and prepare a digital image, create its associated metadata, put both into MDID, and perform image backups. For comparative purposes, we updated our costs spreadsheet for creating 35mm slides. The current total for materials and labor is $7.45 per slide.

We encourage faculty to work with us to include digital imaging costs in any curriculum-related grant for which they apply. One example of this is the Curriculum Development Awards offered by the College of Arts & Sciences. While none were offered for 2006-2007, there may be other such grants in the future. School of Art faculty also have the option of applying for Milliman Endowment funds. Contact Lynn Bazarnic for more information.

In November 2007 we updated our basic facts & figures document, and it may be of interest to some people.

If you have questions, please contact Jeanette Mills.