Online Scholarly Catalogues at the Art Institute of Chicago

Liz Neely & Sam Quigley The Art Institute of Chicago

The “OSCI” Project

Initiated and Funded

by the Getty Foundation

•  Getty Foundation initiated to explore possibilities of presenting collection research digitally.

•  A consortium of nine museums •  Exploring sustainable and replicable models •  Assess how digital publishing might impact

institutional structures

Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative

Re-envisioning the Scholarly Catalogue Art Institute’s Goal: To embrace the appropriate capabilities of the web without leaving behind the weight and authority naturally ascribed to the book format

Includes  fully  footnoted  and  edited  

Technical  Notes  

Provenance  

References  

Exhibi6on  History  

Curatorial  Entry    

In  addi0on  to  

Large  color  plates  

Technical  images  

Compara6ve  illustra6ons  

Details  

   

Our “Gold Standard”

Requirements of the Scholarly Audience Art Institute’s Goal: To specifically target the needs of a scholarly audience.

• It needed to be an authoritative, permanent, and citable reference and maintain the high standards of our previously published print collection catalogues.

“It is our hope that this innovative online platform you experience here will make the important curatorial and conservation research that is part of every museum’s mission more broadly accessible and illuminating.”

Douglas Druick Director’s Forward Monet Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago OSCI Catalogue

Features

Implementation: Authoring the

Online Scholarly Catalogue

High-Resolution Imaging

Multilayer Imaging Tool

Image Registration

Object Photography Art movement scheduled with Collection Manager, Imaging

and Conservation

Imaging captures hi-rez natural light and UV, stitches tiles,

masks background

Image uploaded to IIP

Details defined for publication

Conservation captures technical images and examines artwork

Conservation registers technical image layers against hi-rez natural

light photography

Conservation/curatorial annotate layers

Final technical layers uploaded and annotations converted to SVG for

publication

Other Illustrations

Publications procures rights and images, as they do for print

publications

Digital Information uploads images minding rights

restrictions

Comparative Illustrations

Pull URI from JSTOR or Scan original and OCR for

search and upload

Source, scan and upload

Archival Documents

Archival Images

Why Expend So Much Effort?

“It’s like seeing detective work,

but everyone has the same clues.”

Douglas Druick, in NYTimes article by

Carol Vogel 11/17/2011

Audience Response

Launch Strategy •  Target audience – Scholars •  Listservs rolled out over the first few

weeks •  Soft launch, minimal press

•  Launched just before MCN in Atlanta (11/11/11)

Stats - Analytics •  3,875 visits (as of January 31, 2012)

•  76 different museums and other cultural institutions

•  117 universities

Stats - Analytics •  Readers spent on average over 12

minutes on the site (by browser)

•  Geographically wide demographics

•  47 states and 53 countries

Stats - Qualitative •  96 survey respondents, 11 individual emails

•  Curators, conservators, technologists, publishing professionals, librarians and archivists, and general museum-goers

•  Regardless of discipline—majority view the conservation imagery as the most innovative aspect of the catalogues

•  Respondents have been largely (64.9%) scholars—our intended audience.

Stats – Qualitative J •  Nearly 90% of respondents said that the

catalogues were either ‘very easy’ or ‘somewhat easy’ to navigate.

•  More than half (57.8%) indicated that there were not any aspects of the catalogues that they had difficulty accessing.

•  Appreciated the hi-rez luxurious imagery, innovative technology, and conceptual envisioning of a new collection catalogue.

Stats - Qualitative L •  Four main categories of criticism clearly

emerged:

–  Browser compatibility (16%), icons (14%), navigation (12%), and speed (3%).

•  Obvious and easy to resolve issues are currently being addressed through our continued collaboration with the IMA Lab to improve the reader experience.

Scholars Embracing Digital Publication •  95% of respondents involved in

scholarly research said that they would reference and cite the catalogues as they would a printed publication.

•  100% of respondents who identified themselves as academics said that they would find such a publication a valuable addition to a colleague’s tenure portfolio.

Moving Forward

•  Take cues from print and editorial models •  Shape and support the author’s vision •  Critically examine the use of media •  Push the author to promote clarity •  Bend and compromise, listen and hone

author’s intent

Have a formative impact on the publication!

The Technologists Role

• Are we properly staffed and organized to accomplish the highly collaborative nature of these projects?

• How will OSCI coexist with our print publishing schedules and priorities?

• How do we structure expectations of digital editorial workflows and schedules?

Outstanding Questions

• What are the business models by which we can offer our catalogues to the public online? • How do we stay current in the rapidly evolving digital publication environment?

Outstanding Questions

Scholarly Research and Publishing Ecosystem

To incorporate these scholarly tools into our

collection management system, CITI, and make it an active, propelling agent, as well as

a repository of the continuous scholarly process.

The Dream…

Scholarly catalogues: publications.artic.edu Liz Neely Sam Quigley eneely@artic.edu squigley@artic.edu @lili_czarina

Thank you!