Experimental and Creative Approaches to Collecting and Distributing New Media Art within Regional Arts Organisations

This article is an overview of preliminary research undertaken for the creation of a framework for collecting and distributing new media art within regional art galleries in the U.K. From the 1960s, artists have experimented using computers and software as production tools to create artworks ranging from static, algorithmic drawings on paper to installations with complex, interactive and process-oriented behaviours. The art-form has evolved into multiple strands of production, presentation and distribution. But are we, as collectors, researchers, artists and enthusiasts facing an uncertain future concerning the integration of new media art into institutional cultural organisations? Recently, concerns have been raised by curators regarding the importance of learning how to collect new media art if there is to be any hope of preserving the artworks as well as their histories. Traditional collections management approaches must evolve to take into account the variable characteristics of new media artworks. As I will discuss in this article, although regarded as a barrier to collecting new media artworks, artists and curators at individual institutions have recently taken steps to tackle curatorial and collections management activities concerning the often unpredictable and unstable behaviours of new media artworks by collaboration and experimentation. This method has proved successful with some mainstream, university and municipal galleries prior to acquiring or commissioning new artworks into their collections. This paper purports that by collaboration, experimentation and the sharing of knowledge and resources, these concerns may be conquered to preserve and make new media art accessible for future generations to enjoy and not to lament over its disappearance

A Collaborative Workflow for Digitization of Unique Materials

This paper examines the experience of one institution, the University of Maryland Libraries, as it made organizational efforts to harness existing workflows and to capture digitization done in the course of responding to patron requests. By examining the way this organization adjusted its existing workflows to put in place more systematic methods for digital capture of unique collections, the authors hope to provide insight into the benefits and pitfalls of one model for scaling up digitization

The DiSCmap project : digitisation of special collections: mapping, assessment, prioritisation

The paper presents the outcomes of DiSCmap, a JISC and RIN-funded project which aimed to study users' priorities for digitisation of special collections within the context of the higher education institutions in the UK. The project produced a 'long list' of 945 collections nominated for digitisation by intermediaries and end users and a user-driven prioritisation framework. Web surveys were used as a tool to gather data in combination with focus groups and telephone interviews with end users helped to get additional insights on their views in particular domains. The project developed an online forum and a group in Facebook in order to find to what extent the social networking technologies can be used to sustain a professional informal community but this did not prove to be successful. Over 1000 specialists took part in the different forms used to gather intermediaries and end users' nominations of collections for the "long list" and opinions about digitisation priorities. The long list of 945 special collections nominated for digitisation can be useful as an evidence of identified user interest; this list is not seen as a "snapshot" but as an outcome which needs to be sustained and further developed in the future. A user-driven framework for prioritizing digitisation was produced; it fits well with the current JISC digitisation strategy, providing a further level of detail on user priorities. The project also suggests a flexible approach for prioritizing collections for digitisation based on the use of the framework in combination with the long list of collections. The project did not make a representative study; the participation of intermediaries and end users was a matter of good will. Yet, special collections from 44% of the higher education institutions in the UK were nominated to the long list. The work on the project provided new insights and evidence on the user priorities in digitisation of special collections. It also suggests a user-driven digitisation prioritization framework which would be of benefit in future decision making

Research, relativity and relevance : can universal truths answer local questions

It is a commonplace that the internet has led to a globalisation of informatics and that this has had beneficial effects in terms of standards and interoperability. However this necessary harmonisation has also led to a growing understanding that this positive trend has an in-built assumption that "one size fits all". The paper explores the importance of local and national research in addressing global issues and the appropriateness of local solutions and applications. It concludes that federal and collegial solutions are to be preferred to imperial solutions

mSpace meets EPrints: a Case Study in Creating Dynamic Digital Collections

In this case study we look at issues involved in (a) generating dynamic digital libraries that are on a particular topic but span heterogeneous collections at distinct sites, (b) supplementing the artefacts in that collection with additional information available either from databases at the artefact's home or from the Web at large, and (c) providing an interaction paradigm that will support effective exploration of this new resource. We describe how we used two available frameworks, mSpace and EPrints to support this kind of collection building. The result of the study is a set of recommendations to improve the connectivity of remote resources both to one another and to related Web resources, and that will also reduce problems like co-referencing in order to enable the creation of new collections on demand