Shared+Shelf

= Shared Shelf =

toc A web-based cataloging and image management system that helps institutions to manage, actively use and share their image collections. It consists of a web-based content management, use and cataloging software platform, with related software tools and services. Shared Shelf is an enterprise-level service of ARTstor, a subscription-based digital library of art images. Shared Shelf will have seamless integration of image collections with the ARTstor Digital Library content and interface once it is fully implemented. Currently it is in the trial phase. These trial versions of Shared Shelf became available in fall 2011.

Shared Shelf will make it feasible for universities to combine their institutional collections and faculty collections, and to share those collections — whether that sharing occurs across a single institution, across multiple campus locations, or across the open web — and to do so without the need for local onsite infrastructure. Information centers of all kinds holding database images can participate as well. Shared Shelf will also enable institutions to nominate their collections to be included in the ARTstor Digital Library, thereby expanding a collaborative network of visual content to support research and learning.

Drexel University, as one of the pilot partners, began participating in the first round of usability testing in September 2011. During their December 2011 campus showcase, Director of Library Academic Partnerships, Beth Ten Have, described the value and uses of Shared Shelf.

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A lengthier description by the president of ARTstor was recorded during a conference at Baylor University, a nationally ranked liberal arts university in Waco, Texas. The presentation was an overview of the ARTstor features such as zooming into a detail of an image and recreating the content, among other image manipulations and access. The Shared Shelf introduction began on slide 14 of the presentation. Information was provided about the impetus for the application originating from current clients asking for more integration and storage of their own image libraries.

How it Will Work
The service is subscription-based so there is an annual fee required which is based on the number of digital assets stored as well as campus size and utilization of the system. There were 47 subscribers as of September 21, 2011 which included institutions such as Bryn Mawr College, University of California (San Diego), University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and Minneapolis College of Art & Design as well as the notable Shared Shelf development partners such as: Cornell University, Harvard University, Society of Architectural Historians, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). During the pilot period, more than two million images from 150 colleges, universities, and museums were uploaded into the ARTstor Digital Library software platform, which provided integration and cross searching with more than 1.2 million images already in the database.

Shared Shelf will be web-based and will not require installation of local software. Image uploading speeds will be dependent on each institution's local infrastructure and network connectivity and the system will be able to ingest TIFF, JPEG, and PNG files, as well as auto ingestion of embedded data.

Metadata Component
Cataloging tools will provide customizable metadata entry screens to serve both expert and non-expert catalogers. Catalogers will be able to set up their own data entry screens and integrate local controlled vocabulary lists or use the system [|integrated controlled vocabularies]. Shared Shelf users may create new metadata records by cataloging directly into the Shared Shelf system. The default metadata template consists of 32 fields based on VRA Core 4.0, but can be customized to support any metadata schema. Catalogers may choose to create flat records that contain combined work and image data or to create fully relational work records with related image records. Images and records can be organized in "Projects" and "Sets" that can be further filtered, sorted and searched to find specific metadata records. The cataloging tools will enable editing of single records or be able to bulk-ingest metadata in Microsoft Excel and XML for editing of batches of records.

Sharing and Teaching Components
Libraries, universities and private institutions can not only share their images and have access to all other shared images, but can use the images for educational and public accessibility purposes. Publishing to the web for educational and information center projects is possible, as well as exporting tools which allow local systems and discovery platforms to ingest images, descriptive metadata and technical metadata in a standard format. PowerPoint presentations can be created by importing batches of images with the metadata automatically saving in the notes.