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With dedicated facilities in
the Brown Fine Arts Center, Smith College's notably large collection
of slides, photographs, and digital images will, for the first time,
be housed together. Located primarily on the third floor, the 7,000
gross-square-foot Imaging Center will centralize Smith's rich collection
of images, solidifying the college's standing as one of the leaders
in digital imaging among liberal arts colleges and many universities.
Smith was the first educational institution
to adopt Luna's Insight visual database, a powerful software program
that has been developed to serve the imaging needs of higher education.
Thanks to a major grant from the Andrew Mellon foundation, Smith went
online with 2,500 images in 1998. Since then, the digitized collection
has grown dramatically, in part with support provided by the Davis
Educational Foundation.
The imaging center will allow students
unprecedented access to the college's vast and growing collection
of images. Convenience is also an added advantage with the new technology,
as students can access digital images from any place on campus, including
their residence hall rooms, at any time, day or night.
The imaging center is staffed by five
FTE professionals (curators, catalogers, information management professionals,
image production specialists, and visual communications specialists),
who are part of an emerging field on today's campuses. The center
is primarily administered by the department of art, with support from
the college's educational technology department.
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Luna
Insight image database, with access to more than 107,000
digital images (includes the AMICO Image Library, Smith
College Museum of Art works, and items scanned from
the art department's slide and photo-study collections). |
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Image
Preview Room, available to students and faculty for
previewing projected presentations (both digital and
slides). Students can practice digitized presentations
in this specially equipped room. |
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Digital
Image Development Center, an entirely new resource
for Smith College. This new resource within the imaging
center is dedicated exclusively to incorporating digital
resources into the classroom. It is equipped with five
high-end computer workstations, an instructor's station,
and projection for training and the development of
image-based courses. |
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Image
Study Room, now incorporating multimedia. Students,
working individually or in groups, can display images
on their laptops as they meet to study. Photographs
are also available, as was formerly the case. This
study area will also introduce students to the new
image resources. |
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Image
Production Studio, equipped for traditional photography
and digital image production. |
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New
compact and archival metal slide cabinets housing the
ca. 280,000 35mm art department slide collection. The
scope of the collection covers art, architecture, and
material culture for a wide geographic and cultural
range, including Asian, Prehistoric, Egyptian, Pre-Columbian,
African Ancient Mediterranean, Greek and Roman, Islamic,
European, American, and Native American. |
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73,000
item Photo-Study Collection, including photographs,
color reproductions and prints, drawings and facsimiles,
maps, posters, and postcards (same coverage as the
Slide Collection). |
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Newly-created
service desk, facilitating user support by providing
visible staff and/or student presence, request and
return of image materials, and reference service. |
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