The project managers are Robin Dowden, Integrated Information Resources Manager at the Walker Art Center, and Scott Sayre, Director of Print and Electronic Media at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Developing information standards that will enable integration and access to MIA and Walker resources has been a dominant body of work during the project's first quarter. As members of the Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO; see www.amn.org/AMICO/), both institutions are key players in the consortium whose success is dependent on the identification and creation of robust information standards for the distribution of digital information. Founded by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), AMICO is building a shared library of digital documentation of the members' collections for licensing and distribution to the educational community. Working on IAIA and AMICO simultaneously has given Walker and MIA the unique advantage of participating in the definition of data structures that have international implications and will help to ensure the scalability of our solutions. Scott Sayre and Robin Dowden are members of AMICO Technical Operations Committee, which is charged with defining the standards for the collection and distribution of the AMICO library. Steve Dietz, Walker's Director of New Media Initiatives, is a member of the Users & Uses Committee, which is charged with ensuring that the digitized information is useable in educational settings.

To date, work in the technical standards area has focused on the research and definition of categories or metadata for the description of visual documents and works of art. Metadata for visual documents includes elements such as document type (e.g., digital image, video, moving image), format (e.g., TIFF, VHF, MPEG2), size, date, owner, and source. For works of art, the descriptive categories are perhaps best understood as addressing a series of questions such as: What is it? What is it called? What does it look like? Who made it? What is it about? Who owned it? What is it related to?

In order to promote interoperability with other cultural heritage resources, the process of defining the IAIA and AMICO data sets includes mapping the elements to our local collections management systems, as well as to the data element sets for other community-defined projects such as Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA; see www.gii.getty.edu/cdwa/), Dublin Core Elements for Resource Discovery (Dublin Core; see www.purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/), Research Library Group's Research Into Accessing Cultural Heritage (REACH; see www.rlg.org/reach.html), and Museum Education Site Licensing Group (MESL; see www.gii.getty.edu/index/mesl.html). In particular, the Dublin Core -- intended to facilitate discovery of electronic resources on the Internet and provide a way to describe heterogeneous information resources -- is of central importance. The Dublin Core is simple (15 elements); sufficiently flexible to encode more elaborate semantics if needed; has been deemed appropriate for document-like and image-like objects; and has wide international acceptance.

The Dublin Core is currently viewed as the interoperability mechanism behind the multi-disciplinary catalogue of collections that IAIA aims to build. To this end, MIA and Walker have joined the Metadata Testbed Project of the Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI; see www.cimi.org/). CIMI, a consortium of cultural heritage organizations who have agreed to work cooperatively to solve problems relating to the electronic interchange of museum information, has become the focal point for museums' efforts to find the most economic and effective means to electronically exchange their information and make it useful to the general public via the Internet. The newly formed working group, of which IAIA is a member, is primarily concerned with issues of resource discovery and will be exploring the application of the Dublin Core, testing assumptions made about the Dublin Core within a museum context.

One tangible result of the intellectual work done in IAIA's first quarter will be the implementation of a visual documents cataloguing system -- a database -- to be released early February 1998. The photography departments at MIA and Walker will use this system to catalogue their digital images and the masters (e.g., transparencies) from which they are made. The visual documents catalogue is linked to the IAIA object database (MIA) and permanent collection catalogue (Walker) where information about the objects is maintained. Having image management implications well beyond IAIA, this will be the first time that either institution has created a central repository for visual documents information. Eventually, a subset of this image database, not including asset management information, will be accessible online to anyone on the Internet.

In the fall of 1997, IAIA hosted a one-day digital imaging workshop with Howard Besser, Adjunct Associate Professor at UC Berkeley's School of Information Management & Systems and an internationally recognized expert on digital imaging and multimedia databases in cultural heritage institutions. During this workshop staff members for both Walker and MIA discussed the best practices and procedures for scanning, correcting, and archiving digital images.

Following this workshop, both institutions formed imaging teams and purchased and installed the hardware and software necessary to begin the mass digitization process. The MIA imaging staff also attended three days of training on imaging software usage.

The IAIA content selection and conversion process is being pursued independently by MIA and Walker. At the MIA, each curatorial department was asked to select 120 objects in their collections that they would give top priority to digitization. In addition, the Education Department was asked to select any additional objects necessary to produce the first sets of IAIA on-line educational materials. This process resulted in over 1200 objects being selected. A subset of these objects is currently being selected for the MIA's first year contributions to the IAIA project. Permission requests are currently being drafted to grant the MIA rights to distribute digital reproductions for which the MIA does not hold copyright or are not in the public domain.

A curatorial research associate, part-time research assistants and interns have been assigned to work within the MIA's curatorial, education, and the library departments to identify additional key resources which will supplement the basic image and object information extracted from the collections management system. These additional resources may include related publications, curriculum materials, bibliographic information, non-proprietary notes and letters of interest, photos, drawings, x-rays, audio, video, and multimedia programs. A database is being developed to serve as a reference to these resources. In addition, procedures are being developed and reviewed to digitize these documents and to attempt to secure rights for reproducing documents for which the MIA does not own the copyright.

At the Walker, a content selection committee of three visual arts curators, two educators, and staff from New Media Initiatives was formed. The group was asked to select 500 objects from the Walker permanent collection by end of January 1998. As of December 31, 1997, over 300 objects have been identified, including pieces in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and permanent collection work in the upcoming exhibition 100 Years of Sculpture: From the Pedestal to the Pixel. The list was circulated to Walker departments responsible for identifying collateral material (i.e., photography, slide library, library, archives, education, publications, and new media initiatives) as well as the office of the registrar for rights and reproduction clearance. To date, the registrar's office has sent 25 letters to artists or their agents for permission to reproduce their work digitally for educational purposes.

Focusing on the artists represented by the selected objects, staff from the Walker archives, library, and slide library have begun to select related letters, models, videos, audio tapes and all manner of archival documents to become part of the IAIA resource. The Walker archivist identified six reel-to-reel audiotapes for preservation from the first IAIA list and sent the first of these tapes out for conservation and conversion to digital format.

An extension of IAIA's first component, the process of marking MIA and Walker resources for integrated access has consisted of defining the data structures and mapping the elements of these structures to the local cataloguing systems where the resources are described. In the case of visual documents, a new database was defined and is scheduled for implementation in both institutions by early February 1998 (see last paragraph under section I). The intellectual exercise of mapping heterogeneous resources to the Dublin Core (also described under section I) is viewed as the foundation to successful completion of this component.

An important aspect of the IAIA endeavor is that it allows Walker and MIA staff to draw upon their technical expertise and collective experience working in classrooms to create innovative new interfaces and programming possibilities that maximize technology. Based on the IAIA project staff's experience with other projects such as MESL and two distance learning projects at the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, we are pursuing a three-tiered approach in creating our educational resources.

1. Discrete Access to Rich Context
   
   We recognize that many educators prefer to identify appropriate materials related to their existing curriculum and teaching efforts. The IAIA database will allow teachers and their students to identify materials along a range of criteria, from artist to genre to time period to subject matter. For example, if a teacher selects a painting that can be linked to the study of Civil Rights issues, the museums' staff will have identified related materials, such as videos or artists' correspondence. This is how the standards work with Dublin Core and other metadata will allow a teacher or student to find related work at both institutions and, ultimately, at many other cultural heritage institutions around the world.
   
   
2. Educational Modules
   
   The enthusiastic response to ArtsNet Minnesota indicates that many teachers want access to specific lesson plans based on MIA's and Walker's curatorial and educational expertise, and specific objects in our permanent collections. The Walker will begin to create modules on the artwork located in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (the largest urban sculpture park in the nation), related to the general theme of "Designing Spaces." MIA is considering a number of different themes that are outlined below. Examples of lesson plans created for ArtsNet Minnesota are included in the attachments.
   
   
3. Innovative Programming
   
   One particular area of interest for the Walker is the combination of constructivist or "activity based" pedagogy with the emerging area of immersive experiences. Traditionally immersive computer environments have meant site-based '"virtual reality" experiments, but in collaboration with research centers like the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at University of Chicago, Illinois, we are looking at ways to make similar experiences available remotely. An aspect of this research also may be site-based, since fundamentally both MIA and Walker want to encourage visits to our institutions -- not just remote access. However, even when they are on site, students are not always able to handle or look at all aspects of the artwork on display. Technology can be used to augment their visit to the museum, and allow them to explore and learn about the art in a more leisurely and in-depth fashion.

IAIA team members from MIA's Education department have met a number of times to begin identifying the first set of educational materials to be produced with IAIA resources. Working from the ArtsNet Minnesota model, the team is considering a number of different themes including "Ceramics," "Printmaking," Ancient Art," "Textiles," and "Finding the original in a digital world." Simultaneously, efforts are underway to continue converting existing curriculum materials for access and distribution via the Internet. A search is currently being conducted to hire an additional curriculum specialist/instructional designer to write and manage the production of these digital materials.

V. Goals to be achieved by June 30, 1998 (status report)

1. Digitize 350 images of works of art from each collection
   
   MIA: As of 12/31/97 the MIA had digitized over 500 objects and corrected and formatted 200 of those images to meet the IAIA/AMICO imaging guidelines.
   
   Walker: As of 12/31/97 digital images have been created for over half of the 300 objects identified as IAIA content.
   
   As members of AMICO, both institutions have digital image delivery commitments that fall well within the scope and deadlines of the IAIA grant and help ensure the timely completion of this component.
   
   
2. Provide contextual information for images
   
   MIA and Walker have existing permanent collection systems that will provide the bulk of the structured data that will be delivered through the IAIA project. 40% of the MIA and 100% of Walker permanent collections are described in these systems. MIA and Walker have mapped the elements/fields of their collection management systems to the AMICO data structure. Each institution delivered ten images and contextual information to an AMICO test bed in October 1997.
   
   
3. Create K-12 educational module
   
   Walker hosted a meeting with personnel from the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago as a preliminary step in investigating options for IAIA's educational component. Educators from both institutions attended the session. Walker and MIA continue to work together on the development of curriculum materials for ArtsNet Minnesota, which provides a model for the development of IAIA educational modules. IAIA educational initiatives are described in greater detail under section IV.
   
   
4. Create Web site to provide joint access to IAIA content
   
   A Web page describing the IAIA project will be launched on the Walker Web site by March of 1998 with a link to MIA's Web site. Both institutions have started investigating hardware requirements and possible hosts for the IAIA server. At the Walker, the IAIA project designer has started researching interface design possibilities. Access to the IAIA database will be available on the Internet by June 30, 1998.