ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


March 1 9 9 5 /1 3 9

Getty pilot project explores use of 
digital im ages
T h e G etty Art H istory Inform ation Program  
(AHIP) a n d  MUSE Educational Media hav e se­
lected six m useum s an d  seven universities to 
participate in a pilot project to test th e distri­
bution o f art im ages an d  information. Partici­
pating institutions will resolve issues o f intel­
lectual property rights, netw ork security, an d  
inform ation standards, defining th e term s an d  
conditions for the educational use of m useum  
im ages a n d  inform ation o n  cam pus netw orks. 
This M useum  Educational Site Licensing Project 
runs from  January 1, 1995, through Ju n e  30, 
1997, an d  m akes digitized im ages an d  descrip­
tive texts representing at least 3,000 w orks o f 
art ( a m inim um  of 500 from each participating 
m useum ) available o n  the cam pus netw orks o f 
participating universities w ithout site license or 
royalty fees during th e 1995– 96 academ ic year. 
Information o n  an d  images o f 3,000 m ore w orks

will b e  ad d ed  during 1996–97. Participating uni­
versities are: A m erican University; Colum bia 
University; Cornell University; University o f Il­
linois at Urbana-Champaign; University o f Mary­
land at College Park; University o f Michigan at 
Ann Arbor, D earborn, an d  Flint; a n d  th e Uni­
versity o f Virginia, Charlottesville.

French cave paintings online
Im ages from the recent Com be d ’Arc (Arde'che) 
prehistoric cave painting discovery are already 
o n  th e  Internet at th e  W orld W ide W eb a d ­
dress: h ttp ://w w w .c u ltu re .fr/g v p d a .h tm . This 
lin k  o n  th e  F re n c h  M in istry  o f C u ltu r e ’s 
h o m ep ag e leads to text an d  four images. As 
Jack Kessler reports in his new sletter FYIFrance, 
there are tw o rem arkable things ab o u t this re­
source. First, it is a significant event in art his­
tory, a n d  second, “thanks to netw orking’s w o n ­
ders it has b e e n  only a m onth since the cave 
paintings w ere fo u n d  a n d  suddenly everyone

SA A 's P re s e rv a tio n  M a n a g e m e n t T rain in g  
P ro g ram  is a  huge su ccess

D ecem ber 1994 m arked th e close o f a truly 
p athbreaking educational initiative, the Soci­
ety o f American Archivists’ (SAA) Preserva­
tion M anagem ent Training Program. In 1991 
the SAA received a grant w orth about $650,000 
from the National E ndow m ent for the H um ani­
ties’ Division o f Preservation an d  Access to 
la u n c h  th e  SAA P reserv atio n  M anagem ent 
Training Program. It w as a three-year n atio n ­
w ide program  that trained 44 archival adm in­
istrators in establishing an d  m aintaining com ­
prehensive archival preservation m anagem ent 
p ro g r a m s . T h e  p ro g r a m  w a s c o n d u c te d  
th ro u g h  fo u r regional series, N ortheastern, 
M idwestern, W estern, a n d  Southeastern. Each 
series m et in d ependently for three o n e-w eek  
institutes sp read  across a one-year period. Its 
audience w as m id-career archival adm inistra­
tors targeted to integrate preservation adm in­
istration into their m anagem ent perspectives. 
P a rtic ip a n ts  w e re  s e le c te d  c o m p e titiv e ly  
w ithin their region according to the strength 
o f their application.

T he program ’s pioneering aspects will p ro ­
foundly effect th e future o f preservation e d u ­
cation an d  training in libraries and archives. 
Its underlying philosophy addressed m oving

archival preservation aw ay from ad hoc deci­
sions b ased  o n  restoring docum ents in an ad­
v an ced  stage o f deterioration to w ell-planned 
m anagem ent strategies aim ed at preventing 
deterioration across a repository’s entire hold­
ings.

T he curriculum  advocated integrating pres­
ervation adm inistration into all facets o f the 
m an ag em en t o f archives, n o t necessarily o p ­
erating as a separate functional elem en t in 
th e  sam e w ay as reference o r collection d e­
v elopm ent. T he pro g ram ’s assignm ents w ere 
also exceptional b ecau se they w ere designed 
to build elem ents of a functioning, tailor-made 
archival preservation program  for the student’s 
em ploying institution prior to graduation.

A nother u n iq u e characteristic w as the p ro ­
gram  faculty’s w ork w ith a professional e d u ­
cator/training ex p ert to  develop m o d ern  in­
structional m ethods b ased  on  interactive adult 
learning strategies that have b e e n  successfully 
ap p lied  by educators an d  trainers elsew here. 
T he SAA Preservation M anagem ent Training 
Program  leaves us w ith a legacy o f being the 
n atio n ’s m ost am bitious preservation ed u ca­
tion program  u n d ertak en  to d a te .— Tyler O. 
Walters, Iowa State University

http://www.culture.fr/gvpda.htm