A new state-of-the-art fine arts complex for our College will soon open and it includes an Imaging Center: a physical environment that will support activities related to the teaching and research use of images. A parallel building project is happening simultaneously: the development of digital content and tools to enable imaging across the campus. The bricks and mortar effort will soon result in a spectacular sunrise. As far as content and tools go, we’re still in the deepest dark before dawn, i.e. we’re not there yet. As one faculty member put it, ‘That’s nice, but now what I really need …’. These few words speak volumes about user expectations and the extraordinary effort it takes to meet them.

More than 20 million images are to be found at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), in the form of book and periodical illustrations, manuscript illuminations, maps and plans, prints, drawings and photographs. The editorial context of these images means they are to be found in all fourteen collections departments of the library. However, it is the department of Prints and Photographs that, thanks to legal deposit for published images instituted in the 17th century, possesses one of the richest iconographic collections in the world: prints, posters, drawings, photographs, postcards, etc. These images have to be consulted in the reading rooms of the library’s different collection departments, which are at five different sites (François-Mitterrand (Tolbiac), Richelieu, Arsenal, Opéra, Avignon - Maison Jean Vilar). The introduction of digitisation should bring many changes to this traditional means of research, although we are still only at the beginning, with a programme that started little more than ten years ago.

‘Oh no, not another image database to review!’ That was a familiar thought that often crossed my mind when I was studying Computer Applications for the History of Art, and now I find myself responsible for a national image repository and have to subject audiences far and wide to it. However, I’d like to think this one is a little bit special and pretty unique, even on a global scale, particularly because it is essentially a community-produced resource, ensconced within a ‘total-service’ philosophy and environment. Although other parties, primarily within UK higher education, create the database’s informational and image content, VADS ‘standards and good practice’ guidance often supports the creation of that content. This holistic methodology aims to facilitate a smooth process from resource planning to delivery, providing many benefits to both data creators and end-users.

This article is a sales pitch for pictures, even though art librarians already value visual materials highly. A decade’s advances in online access at a major documentary picture provider, the Library of Congress’ Prints and Photographs Division, should encourage librarians to visit the online United States national library often, and also to offer more of their own collections through the World Wide Web. Despite the beneficial digital image navigation features introduced into the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC), many improvements are still needed and there is a long list of desirable future developments. Reference librarians, catalogers, curators, digital conversion specialists and web designers are all invited to contribute to online reference aids as well as online catalogs, to help people succeed more often in finding pictures.

ArtSTOR is a digital imaging initiative of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. ArtSTOR seeks to create digital image collections that respond to the needs of scholars, curators, teachers and students in the history of art and related fields of study. As a public utility, it also aims to create a secure, regulated, networked space, defined by a framework of licensing agreements that embraces content providers, subscribers and service administrators - a precinct in which educational and scholarly activities can flourish in ways that simultaneously respect intellectual property rights and encourage the ‘fair use’ of digital media.

As education and research institutions struggle to come to terms with networked resources, new kinds of organizations and partnerships are emerging to support the distribution of networked cultural heritage information. The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) provides an example of how museums have collaborated, in a manner that respects the requirements of education and research, to enhance access to the digital multimedia documenting their collections. AMICO has responded to librarians’ concerns about administration, economics, access and use in this new information environment, leveraging resources and - it is hoped - providing cost-effective, unprecedented access to cultural multimedia.