Welcome to Take A Look

This blog is hosted by the Imaging Center at Smith College. It is a place for sharing all things imaging, including news about: LUNA, images on the web, copyright, media tools, ARTstor, digitization and more. I encourage you to comment, post and come back often!
Elisa Lanzi, Director, Imaging Center

Imaging Center

Smith College

Smith College and ARTstor partner on collection of Japanese art, architecture, and rituals photographed by David Boggett

ARTstor is partnering with Smith College to share approximately 500 images of Japanese art, architecture, and festivals created by David Boggett in the Digital Library. David Boggett is a Professor in the Faculty of the Humanities at Kyoto Seika University, where he has taught Japanese and Asian history of over 30 years. His photographs focus on the historic buildings, religious and civil festivals, and traditions of Kyoto and the nearby Lake Biwa area of Shiga Prefecture. The collection in ARTstor will document the historic architecture in the area, particularly shrines and temples, and the local festivals celebrated at these sites. The images also record the traditional rituals, customs, costumes, and artifacts associated with the festivals, many of which are no longer held, or have been altered through the influence of modernization and tourism.

For more detailed information about this collection, visit the David Boggett: Art, Architecture, and Festivals in Japan (Smith College) collection page.

Using Google images

Google Image Search Gets Usage Rights Filtering
by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News, July 9, 2009
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10283315-2.html

“In an effort to keep people from incorrectly reusing or re-purposing images found on its image search tool, Google has added new options that let users filter results by usage rights. Users can now filter photos by whether they’re available for reuse, commercial reuse, reuse with modification, or commercial use with modification.”

Preparing for the new LUNA

INSIGHT AND LUNA WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE JULY 25 – JULY 31 DURING THE MIGRATION PERIOD.

We are migrating our Smith image database from the INSIGHT Java client software to LUNA, a web-based platform. This new LUNA platform will provide a number of advantages, including:

* Access LUNA from any web browser. No more downloading the Java software.
* Easily search all collections at once
* Improved/redesigned advanced searching and browsing
* Easy access to your own groups (no more long folder cascades)
* Easy re-naming, downloading and copying of your groups
* Share and embed your groups with “widgets” into other web-based teaching tools.

As you know, the current INSIGHT allowed you to save images into Groups and create Presentations from those Groups. In order to migrate to the new LUNA we ask for your help in transferring your material from INSIGHT to the new LUNA.

If you have Groups or Presentations in INSIGHT please read the following instructions:

GROUPS: Please review your Groups in INSIGHT and delete any unwanted Groups. Contact Jon Cartledge jcartled@smith.edu by July 10th to let him know that you have completed your review. Your remaining Groups will be migrated to LUNA.

PRESENTATIONS: In order to preserve your existing presentations (unfortunately, the INSIGHT Presentations cannot be transferred directly to the new LUNA) we ask that you select one of the following options:

  • OPTION 1. If you created Presentations simply to export your images to PowerPoint, you don’t need to do anything. In the new LUNA, Groups can be directly exported to PowerPoint.
  • OPTION 2. If you created Presentations, customized them in INSIGHT (made details, side-by side comparisons, etc), and exported them to PowerPoint, you’ll need to save the PowerPoints on your local computer or flash drive. NOTE: These Presentations will no longer be accessible in LUNA.
  • OPTION 3. If you created Presentations and use them “live” in INSIGHT, please contact Jon Cartledge jcartled@smith.edu for assistance.

We appreciate your help in this transition and we look forward to working with you in the new LUNA. Training and help documents will be available in late July. Please contact Elisa Lanzi or Jon Cartledge with any questions.

Virtual Rome: April 2 in Graham Hall

“Bernard Frischer, designer of Ancient Rome for Google Earth, will speak on “Making Cultural Heritage Virtual: Rome Reborn and Other 3D Modeling Projects at the University of Virginia” on Thursday, April 2, at 5 p.m. in Graham Hall, Hillyer. During his talk, Frischer will explain how archaeologists and architectural historians are increasingly finding it useful to create digital 3D models of their objects of study. Digital models of ancient Rome and of several historical American sties recently created at the University of Virginia will be presented to exemplify uses of 3D models. The lecture will be of great interest to those in a range of disciplines, including art, computer science, history, and archaeology.” [from the Grecourt Gate News]

Scholars call for Open Access to Digital Images

A group of international scholars and representatives of leading museums, libraries, image archives and publishers have produced a set of best-practice recommendations for the scholarly use of visual media. Under the leadership of The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), the recommendations aim to “create a network of mutual trust and cooperation between scholars and curators of cultural heritage collections with a view to facilitating access to and the scholarly use of visual media.”

See the full report and recommendations at:
http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/news/features/feature4/