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Queries

Digital Initiatives and Funds

In February, 2004, on the VRA members’ listserv the perennially challenging question was posed by Gretchen Tuchel, University of St. Thomas in Minnesota: how to find start-up money for converting to a digital collection? Specifically, she was interested in finding examples of successful collaborations with an institution’s library. The numerous responses addressed various strategies for gaining administrative support and funding in a campus setting.

  1. Recognize that the need for image collections extends beyond art history
    · Many other disciplines today relying on images for teaching and research
    · VR curators able to support broader access to their image collections may gain a greater base of funding support
    Comments from Janet Oliver of UNC-Greensboro, and Andrea Frank of Boston College)
  2. Reach out to other entities in the institution
    · Libraries need to build content, have interest and capacity for digital resources
    · Look for other digital initiatives on campus
    (Andrea Frank, John Taormina of Duke University, and Rebecca Price of Univ. Michigan)
  3. Connect with existing strategic planning initiatives
    · These provide a mechanism for negotiating commitments
    · Support may come from resource shifting, not additional funds
    (Harriet Sonne de Torrens of Syracuse Univ., Maureen Burns of U. California Irvine)
  4. Align your goals with sources for funding pedagogical innovation
    · Many institutions offer small internal grants
    · Often coordinated through academic technologies staff
    · Won’t always fund simple “content” development, without some angle on enhanced use for teaching and study
    (Janet Oliver, John Taormina, Christina Updike of James Madison University)
  5. Look for scalable, incremental ways to start building content
    · Commercial sources for digital image files, and licensed subscriptions
    · Start with a pilot program for local digital production
    (Maureen Burns, Andrea Frank)
  6. As institutions begin to implement Digital Assets Management systems (DAMS) VR collections can supply initial assets
    · But libraries not necessarily as interested in supporting additional end-user management tools such as Luna Insight or MDID
    (Andrea Frank, Mark Pompelia of Rice Univ.)
  7. Collaborate with other institutions to pursue common goals
    · University of California 10-campus state system recognized common needs, value of economizing through shared image database
    · As a group, the consortium of image collections were then able to find further support through the emerging California Digital Library network
    · Learn from library experiences in collaboration
    (Maureen Burns)

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