The Museum Educational Site Licensing (MESL) Project was a two‐year experiment launched in 1995 by the Getty Information Institute, then the Getty Art History Information Program, in conjunction with MUSE Educational Media. A select group of educational and collecting institutions collaborated in studying the capture, distribution, and educational use of museums’ digital images and their associated texts. The project also provided a vehicle for exploring and promoting the educational benefits of digital access to museum collections through campus networks. The participants included seven major museums, seven universities and two sponsoring agencies. The MESL project received the support of the Association of Art Museum Directors, the American Association of Museums, and the Coalition for Networked Information.
In the fall of 1995, museums participating in this pilot project made digitized images and information, representing over 4,000 works (a minimum of 500 from each participating museum), available to educational institutions. These images and descriptive texts were available on campus networks for research and educational purposes during the academic year 1995‐1996. A minimum of 3,000 additional works were added during academic year 1996‐1997. The participants then agreed to a one year extension of the cooperative agreement under which the material was licensed for use on campuses, to June, 1998. The MESL web site is simple to navigate; and the content is clearly laid‐out on the pages. The graphics are simple, yet attractive, and professional in appearance. There is a through‐going design motif with common navigation tools and banner. The main headings are:
About MESL ‐ background information including MESL’s goals and objectives, the original calls for participation, meeting reports, and the general project mailing list archives.
Working groups ‐ specific information about the activities of the MESL working groups.
MESL participants ‐ a list of the organizations participating in MESL, including management committee, museums, and universities.
Related sites ‐ internet‐based readings and resources relevant to the work of MESL.
The main drawback is that the site has not been adequately maintained. For example, in the Related Sites section, the material is not up‐to‐date and some of the links don’t work. Further, there are sections of the site that are password‐protected and only accessible to project participants. The main value of the site is the information about the history and structure of this important project. It can also function as a “jumping off” point in a search for related materials.
Two projects have followed from the MESL initiative. One is the Museum Digital Licensing Collective (www.museumlicensing.org) and the other is the Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) project. Only the latter one will be discussed in this review. In October, 1997, the Association of Art Museum Directors Educational Foundation, Inc. announced the formation of AMICO, a non‐profit organization that will provide educational access to a joint multimedia digital library documenting works of the collections of the major North American art museums.
Prior to announcing the full availability of its digital library, AMICO is launching a year‐long testbed project. The intention is to validate the proposed framework for the collective licensing of museum digital collections, and to evaluate a means of delivering this content to the higher educational community. The university testbed project will also increase understanding of the ways that universities are adopting digital teaching and reference tools and it will enable AMICO member museums to offer a library that meets the needs of its users.
The main pages at the AMICO site are:
home page ‐ general consortium information, including links to a range of subsidiary pages;
discussions page ‐ allows creation of threaded discussions;
current documents page ‐ provides information on the university “testbed” initiative, an overview of AMICO, the way in which the consortium will function, the current agreements among consortium partners and so on.
background documents ‐ the AMICO mission statement, list of AMICO members and various papers and reports of meetings.
The site does not use a lot of graphics so downloading time is not a big issue. Moving around the site is easy with a navigation bar added at the bottom of each page and the top of the browser window. Readability of the pages is enhanced through good colour contrast between the text and pages backgrounds. The font is also easy to read and page margins are substantial. The content of the site is very current. This is a practical, useful, and well‐constructed site.
The dramatic improvements in computer and network technology are enabling widespread transmission of digitized images of cultural materials, subject to conditions concerning intellectual property rights. This development will be of particular significance to museums, art galleries, and institutions of higher education. Both the Getty Information Initiative and the Art Museum Image Consortium have important roles to play. The AMICO web site reflects this, being of substantial value. The MESL site (part of the Getty site) is of primarily historical value.
