Written by Jeremy Rees, this page describes the ITEM knowledge base, a directory of Image Technology in Museums and galleries. It is one of a number of pages about museum information standards prepared by the International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CIDOC ).
Jeremy Rees announced in July 2000 that ITEM was to cease publication and the IVAIN trust was to be wound up. This was because "the cost of the technical transfer [to a new host] and planned development considerably exceeded the levels of return the publication offers. The situation has been further undermined by the low level of new CD-ROM publications in our field over the past 18 months, together with the very slow emergence of relevant DVD publications." This page is being retained on the CIDOC site in the meantime for the information of people seeking information about these products, but it is now obsolescent.ITEM is an international resource of information about the planned and implemented uses, world-wide, of image databases and interactive multimedia. It is intended to further the accessibility, knowledge and interest in European and world cultural heritage, particularly in relation to the visual arts. It is compiled and published by IVAIN in partnership with CIDOC.
ITEM collects and disseminates descriptive text (in English and language of original production) and technical information (in English only), together with production and publisher contact names and addresses relating to projects under development and completed published or museum-resident image database and interactive multimedia projects.
These include projects developed by museums, cultural authorities and others for use as internal management and/or public point-of- information resources, projects that have been developed from these resources for subsequent publication and projects that have been designed from the outset specifically for commercial publication.
ITEM has subscribers in 22 countries world-wide, who include Museums, Universities, Libraries, Cultural Authorities, Information Managers, IT Developers and Researchers.
As from January 1997, ITEM is a WWW text and image publication.
IVAIN does not have any direct subsidy towards the compilation and production, so ITEM will continue to be a subscription-based publication by IVAIN in collaboration with CIDOC, with a server made available through partnership with University College Suffolk. Visitors to the WWW site who are not yet subscribers have free access to information about ITEM; a small (regularly changing) sample of ITEM records, demonstrating the extensive search facilities.
As well as the text entry, many of the ITEM records now contain images - up to 6 thumbnails 160 x 120 pixels of screen shots to indicate the look and feel, content, facilities and user interface, each enlargeable to 480 x 360 pixels. IVAIN is not proposing full screen images of works of art on their own (but, in any case,the limited resolution would not constitute a security of reproduction problem) nor, at the present time, video or sound bites.
Hypertext links are included where the record, museum or production company has a WWW site of its own. Extensive search facilities are provided enabling users to find specific records matching up to a variety of criteria or to check the range of publications with which a specific museum, developer or publisher are associated.
A What's New page will provide listings of additions to the ITEM knowledge base in the past 14, 30, 90 and 365 days . Hypertext links to other interesting WWW "sites of sites" relevant to the scope of ITEM, are included, forming a useful starting point for further Internet explorations.
Finally there is there is an e-mail questionnaire for comments and suggestions for the further development of ITEM, an e-mail subscription form to ITEM, and an e-mail data entry form for sending details of your interactive multimedia projects and publications for future inclusion in ITEM.
This new initiative will enable ITEM to provide up-to-date information more quickly in the rapidly developing information and publishing environment and will replace of the hard copy publication. Future developments (subject to funding) will inlcude several additional European languages.
Previously, from its pilot issue in 1989 to ITEM 9 in May/June 1995, ITEM has been published in hard copy, text only, twice yearly on subscription. Back issues (ITEM 1 to ITEM 9) are still available in hard copy to existing and new subscribers.
ITEM is seeking to achieve wider international collaboration with other information resources, on the development of its underlying data structure and searches. It is also wanting to explore cross referencing to database and other information resources and bibliographic databases (whose own users may also find ITEM of interest) that are better carried out as specialist databases in their own right, and to relevant Internet and other networked multimedia resources that would be of direct interest to the users of ITEM.
ITEM is a participant in the Networked Information Sources in the Arts and Humanities Project (NISAH) being undertaken by the Getty Information Institute. Other participants with resources that complement ITEM include the Clearinghouse on Art Documentation and Computerization, now based at the Frick Art Reference Library, New York (with whom ITEM has since its outset, had contact and an exchange of information) and The Clearinghouse of Image Databases at the University of Arizona.
Contact Information: Jeremy Rees, Director, International Visual Arts Information Network Trust 24 Lots Road, London SW10 0QF
Tel: 020 7376 8759 (international +44 20 7376 8759)
Fax: 020 7376 8798 (international +44 20 7376 8798)
E-mail: ivain@easynet.co.uk
Annual subscription, payable in sterling:
Museums, Galleries & Education 65 pounds;
Commercial Sector 130 pounds;
CIDOC members special rate 50 pounds;
Hard-copy back issues 1-9 (subscribers only) 15 pounds.
References: Rees, Jeremy, 'The ITEM Database', Managing Information, 2(3), March 1995: 40-42.
http://cidoc.icom.museum/item1.htm
Revised / dernière mise à jour: 31st July 2000.
Contributor of information: Jeremy Rees, 10 September 1996
Author / Auteur: Andrew Roberts
Link to / Passerelle vers CIDOC home page / la page d'accueil du CIDOC
or ICOM home page / la page d'accueil de l'ICOM
© The International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums /
Comité international pour la documentation du Conseil international des musées
(ICOM-CIDOC), 1997