Luna Imaging, Inc. | Collection Sharing

Users Group 2003 Summary

Luna Imaging, Inc. would like to thank all the 2003 Users Group meeting attendees for their participation in another engaging and productive gathering. For those of you who were unable to attend the meeting- as well as those who would like to revisit some of the featured discussions and topics--we would like to post here a recap the meeting's sessions.

Additionally, we would like to encourage continued discussion on the issues many of you contributed to during the event.

Session 1: Insight® Development Update
Presented by: Michael Ester PhD., President, Luna imaging Inc.

Release Schedule
Shortly after the Users Group meeting hosted by Rutgers University, Insight V4.0 was released to our current user base. The meeting began with a brief overview of new tools and features in the current V4.0 release.

Part of the overview discussed response to client requests to time software releases against the academic calendar. Luna released Insight 4.0 in early summer (mid-June) to so administrators could install and test software before the new school year. We provided an interim release at the end of the year to organizations that wanted access to special features as soon as possible. Participants at the meeting indicated that the above arrangement still did not allow sufficient time for testing in the summer: releases should in late spring, at least by the end of May. In order to meet this requirement, Luna will limit releases at the end of the year to bug fixes, minor enhancements to existing functions, and certain server side improvements that do not impact structure or user side changes. Main new features will be concentrated in the spring release. Institutions can deploy the interim version, or simply wait to do an install of the full release. From 3.1 forward, all version of Insight are backward compatible.

V4.0 Development Documentation
To access a summarized version of the Insight Development document that was shared with the attendees, please select the following link:

Click here to download v4.0 Development PDF

This document includes descriptions of a number of the new features and enhancements provided in Insight V4.0 including:

Revisions to the Insight User Interface
Revised and Expanded On-Line Help
http://www.lunaimaging.com/v4_0help/insight/insight4.htm
Hierarchical Display of Folders, Groups, and Presentations
Export of Insight Presentations to HTML, or Microsoft PowerPoint (in Windows)
Collection Usage Reporting
Web-Initiated Insight

Session 2: Inscribe™
Presented by Adam Brin, Luna Sales Engineer

InScribe's end user functionality was briefly demonstrated for discussion during the Users Group meeting. This session followed more in depth coverage in the optional "Training Day" provided at Rutgers, where participants spent several hours becoming more familiar with the Inscribe data editing tool first released in V 3.5.

For more information about the Inscribe data editor please see our Inscribe web-help document at: http://www.lunaimaging.com/v4_0help/inscribe/inscribehelp.htm

Session 3:
New Directions in Insight® Collection Development and Collection Sharing

Panel included:

David Austin, University of Illinois at Chicago

Addressed current initiatives in collection building - including the publicly available Comer Archive of Chicago in the year 2000 http://www.lunaimaging.com/community/collectionsharing.html

David also discussed plans for future expansion of digital collections across the University to include content from the Slavic Languages collection, Romance Languages collection, and Medical Informatics

Suzie Ridenour, National Aquarium in Baltimore

Presented the National Aquarium's application of Insight as an enterprise focused tool that allows them to meet their institutional objectives. Some of the areas that were covered included the ongoing effort to consolidate resources from multiple departments, control of image redundancy and accurate identification of images, and use of Insight and digital images in pre-press, public relations outreach, and licensing.

John Little, Duke University

Provided very useful guidelines developed at Duke for planning the organizational infrastructure and processes involved in deploying Insight and developing visual collections across the university. Important considerations discussed were the working groups that establish policy and priorities, chart collection building strategies, and assess resources for supporting collections and their use in teaching.
Link to the Duke Information Technology Insight Page to access the Power Point presentation provided at the Insight Users Group meeting: http://www.lib.duke.edu/its/diglib/insight/

Doug Hiwiller, Cleveland Museum of Art
Mike Brugnoni, Cleveland Museum of Art

Both Doug and Mike provided the User Group attendees with an in-depth look at CMA's Insight implementation and use of the application within a museum environment. With Acknowledging the challenge of disseminating information about new tools and encouraging user adoption, Mike Brugnoni had developed internal step-by-step training guides to assist staff in the best use of Insight.

Session 4: AMICO/Cartography Associates Presentation - New tools and publishing techniques
Presented by: David Rumsey

David Rumsey (Cartography Associates) demonstrated a number of new collection and Insight initiatives he has undertaken over the last year. A QuickTime VR on his website combines a virtual tour of his archive with hot links that trigger Insight's remote launch to high quality images and data from his collection. In addition to continual expansion of his core online American collection, CA recently added a collection of Japanese Historical Maps from the East Asian Library of UC Berkeley. http://www.davidrumsey.com/ny%20times%20with%20pictures.htm.

This year, Cartography Associates began its subscription service to the AMICO collection in Insight. David outlined plans for releasing several additional collections in the coming year. David discussed the tendency of universities to bury awareness of both their own online collections and available to outside resources, and the kinds of proactive steps he is taking to raise collection visibility among potential users. David also described his experience with two publishing projects and an exhibition, and how Insight was used to collaborate in the selection and review of material and to deliver images for press.

Session 5: Enhancing the Visual Catalogue of Asian Art, Howard F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell - Insight® Annotation Features
Presented by: Kathy Lee, Cornell University

Presented an overview of an NEA sponsored project to enhance documentation on the museum's Asian Art Collection. Augmenting existing catalog records, Kathy Lee discussed digitizing and annotation of over 3000 images. Complementing existing catalog records, Insight's annotation feature is being used to add extensive commentary on individual works of art. Annotation links enable observations about specific regions within an image as well as general statements about the work. Problems encountered and remaining issues were discussed. Project goals include making museum objects available with rich and expanding interpretative content to increase the research and teaching value of the collection.

Session 5: RU CORE - Metadata and Standards Mapping in Insight®
Presented by: Kalaivani Ananthan, Rutgers University

To make searching easier for its three current collections and for collections under development or in planning, Rutgers has developed its own local data standard: the RU CORE. Existing standards (i.e. those represented in the Getty cross-walk) were considered too elaborate and unfamiliar for the extended university community. Derived from the Dublin Core - 9 required elements were identified to simplify searching and offer more intuitive criteria for cross-collection access.

To review the PowerPoint presentation please click here:

Download RU CORE PowerPoint

Session 6: Copyright
Panel included: Jeanne Boyle, Rutgers University; Glen Worthy, Stanford University; Susan Williams, Yale University; Jolene DeVerges, Smith College; Donald Beetham, Rutgers University

The panel discussed the wide range of challenges associated with disseminating and accessing digital image collections. Options for acquiring content that presented low risk of scrutiny in the copyright arena were presented, as well as strategies for evaluating and managing risk. Rutgers' own survey on the use of digital images by the student body was discussed.

Many of these User Group sessions sparked debate, and a clear interest to continue pursuit of the topics via a forum for information sharing and discussion. To further that objective, we'd like to ask that you visit our Community Page - and indicate by order of priority - topics that you would like investigate and participate in active exchange.

Please see: http://www.lunaimaging.com/community/2003feedback.html