Friday, September 30, 2005

More News from ARTstor

* ARTstor Announces Immediate Release of Additional Images from
Museums *

In July 2005, ARTstor announced the release into the ARTstor Digital
Library of more than 25,000 images from the former AMICO Library. Now
an additional eight institutions, formerly part of AMICO, have
contributed a total of 55,000 images to ARTstor. This brings the
number of images in ARTstor from institutions which were formerly
AMICO members to approximately 80,000.

The new institutional contributors to ARTstor include:

- Dallas Museum of Art
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Indianapolis Museum of Art
- Library of Congress
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

While most of these works were originally part of the AMICO library,
some museums have contributed additional content that was not
originally part of AMICO and/or have provided ARTstor with improved
images and associated cataloging.

To locate these new images, which have been integrated into the
ARTstor Image Gallery and its browsing taxonomy, you may use “AMICO”
as keyword when searching. For best results, combine “AMICO” with
additional search criteria, such as repository or creator name.

All of the following former AMICO members are now contributing content
to ARTstor:

- Asia Society
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College
- Fine Arts Museums of San Franciso
- The Frick Collection and Art Reference Library
- George Eastman House
- Indianapolis Museum of Art
- Library of Congress
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- The Walters Art Museum

Watch for upcoming announcements about the release into the ARTstor
Digital Library of images from The Detroit Institute of the Arts, The
Art Institute of Chicago, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

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* Images of Exploration added to the ARTstor Digital Library *

We are delighted to announce the addition of the following new image
archives, both of which deal with human exploration, to ARTstor.

First Fleet Collection

One of the most frequently consulted collections at the Natural
History Museum, London, is the corpus of watercolors collectively
known as “The First Fleet Collection." The artists were prisoners and
sailors associated with the "First Fleet" of convicts that left
England in 1787 for New South Wales, Australia. The pictures form a
record of the earliest scenes, people, plants, and wildlife
encountered by the first European settlers in Australia. The "First
Fleet Collection" consists of 629 pictures, painted by at least four
artists whose techniques and background were very different. The
collection is continually consulted by cultural historians,
scientists, students of art and art history, as well as regularly
requested for exhibition and print publishing projects. The "First
Fleet Collection" has been digitized with the support of The Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation. These wonderful watercolors are now available in
the ARTstor Digital Library, as part of the growing Image Gallery.
They may be most readily found by searching for the phrase "first
fleet".

Giza

From 1902-1947, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, conducted a
pioneering series of archeological excavations at Giza, Egypt. This
effort resulted in a rich archive of approximately 22,000 excavation
photographs. These important documentary photographs have been
digitized with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. They
are now available in the ARTstor Digital Library, as part of the
growing Image Gallery. They may be most readily found by searching the
keywords "Giza" and "Boston" in combination.

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* Interface Improvements *

You may have noticed that we have made a few changes to the interface.
These updates are in response to user feedback and we hope they have
increased the usability of the ARTstor tools. Our first change was to
replace the term "Course Folder" with the more accurate expression
"Shared Folder" which should better suit all of our participants -
from elementary schools through museums. We also improved the
interface through which users with instructor privileges can create a
Shared Folder. For instructions and screenshots, please see our help
page
.

If you have never created a Shared Folder but would like to
learn how to share your image groups with other ARTstor users at your
institution, consider attending our Advanced Training Session.
Instructions for registering for an online training session can be
found here [http://www.artstor.org/info/using_artstor/eut_register.jsp]. As always, we welcome your feedback [mailto:userservices@artstor.org].