Digital Photography Sessions at MCN 2003 Join us for the Museum Computer Network's 2003 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada where as part of our conference theme "Balancing Museum Technology and Transformation" we look at the role of digital imaging in a variety of contexts. See our complete program at www.mcn.edu/mcn2003/index.html and register online! Wednesday, November 5 and Saturday, November 8: Strategies for Digitization, Parts 1 and 2. A workshop by Alan Newman, Executive Director, Department of Imaging, Art Institute of Chicago. Museums are increasingly using digital imaging as a companion to and a replacement for conventional analog photography. The uses of digital images include multimedia and web publishing, pre-press lithography, reference in collection management, conservation documentation and desktop video. This workshop will explore the strategies of digitization for museums applications and present the various tools for image capture and quality evaluation as well as how to capitalize on in-house resources. A technical overview will be an important part of the workshop, yet substantial time will be devoted to workflow issues and return on investment. Directed at photographers, department heads, managers, educators, administrators, deputy directors or any museum professional wishing to take advantage of the digital environment. Learn when and how to phase out analog photography where necessary while still supporting it where appropriate. Wednesday, November 5: Digital Video. A workshop by Michael Borthwick, of Michael Borthwick Consulting Pty, Melbourne, Australia. Whether producing video, or incorporating the moving image into their collections, museums must negotiate what can seem a mysterious landscape of hardware, software, standards and storage systems. This workshop will demystify video as a medium by orienting participants within this landscape. It will examine delivery via DVD, kiosks and the web and explore the requirements for basic PC and Macintosh editing systems that will enable museums (and even their visitors) to produce content for these platforms. *MCN Exclusive Thursday, November 6: Museums and Digital Cameras: A Dialog with Industry. A panel session moderated by Everett Ellin, Strategist/Consultant for Business and Museums. Panelists include: David Gilblom President Alternative Vision Corporation (Los Altos, CA) James Pohlman Director of Operations, Digital Cameras Eastman Kodak Company (Rochester, NY) Howard Goldstein Vice President Center for Digital Imaging (New York, NY) Michael Brugnoni Digital Imaging Support Specialist Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH) Jane Sledge Information and Technology Manager National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC) Daniel Stowell Director of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln Lincoln Presidential Library (Springfield, IL) Museums are a small but important and rapidly growing market segment for high quality digital cameras capable of accurately and efficiently capturing the images of many types of art objects. However, the museum community has typically not been effective in communicating their special needs with camera developers. As a result, museum camera needs are left to be met by the products designed and optimized for other market segments and consumers. This session brings together camera manufacturers and developers, digital imaging experts, and museum photographers to explore the problems with current digital cameras, the prospects and potential for new digital photography technology (e.g. Foveon chip, special lenses, new means of profiling, etc.), potential synergies with other market niches, and the difficulties manufacturers encounter when trying to accommodate museums' needs. This session will also report on the special "Dialog with a Manufacturer" meeting sponsored by MCN and held last June at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which focused on the potential for developing a special Foveon camera for the museum market. and helped establish the framework for this session. MCN hopes that this will be the first in a series of "Dialogs with Industry" which will help the museum community work with software and hardware industries to explore and meet museum needs. Saturday, November 8: Collections on the Move: Building an Image Database with Extensis Portfolio. A presentation by Daniel Rothbart, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian is currently moving some 800,000 Native American objects from a crowded warehouse in the Bronx, New York, to a state of the art storage facility in Suitland, Maryland. As the Assistant Move Coordinator - Imaging my primary duty is to manage a team of six staff members who image each of the objects in the museums collection in a studio environment before they travel. Thus far we have imaged two terabytes of high-resolution TIF and JPEG files that are used in the proprietary NMAI Registration Information Tracking System (RITS) database. When I joined the move project I also inherited over 1,500 digital images that document this historic project from 1999 to the present. The images document moving massive objects such as Haida totem poles, Native American watercraft, and dwellings, but also record the daily registration, conservation, imaging, and packing of the George Gustav Heye collection of Native American Art. Because most of the staff members engaged in the move process will leave the museum for other employment after the move is complete, there is an urgent need to organize these images and associate them with specific information and memories that only current move employees can provide. I decided to create a database of the images with Extensis Portfolio Server. This application enables us to associate the images with metadata to give them a meaningful, accurate context for future use by researchers. The NMAI has not yet adopted a comprehensive image management database system, but Portfolio Server allows us to export tab delimited files with each of the meta data fields, so that the information can be imported into any future database. With the blessing of the NMAI IT Department, we installed the program on a node of the museum network in Washington D.C. from which it can be used by multiple users in both the Bronx and Suitland locations. We developed a system for managing the database and delegating access and publishing privileges. We also developed a two-tiered backup regimen that includes both tape and exported tab delimited files. Thus far the project has proved very successful. It was recently adopted by the Move Conservation Department to organize its images of conservation treatments, and the NMAI Repatriation, Photo Services, and Archives Departments have all expressed interest in the program. And there's lot more. For the complete program, further information and on-line registration, see www.mcn.edu
