Cornell’s Digital Museum
The Johnson Museum of Art is engaged in a collaborative project with the University Library’s Cornell Institute for Digital Collections to digitize and offer electronic access to its permanent collection of over 30,000 objects.
Every work of art must be digitally photographed to generate high-resolution images that are then integrated with expert curatorial data for searching and viewing by Cornell faculty and students, and the general public and scholars around the world.
On-site patrons can use a computer kiosk in the Museum lobby to access images and data for nearly 20,000 objects already processed. Cornell community members are authorized to download the full-featured product. However, essential access is available to anyone via the World Wide Web. See images.library.cornell.edu for more detail.
This project makes its resources available via the integration of multimedia archiving software developed by Luna Imaging, Inc., and curatorial data management software developed by Gallery Systems, Inc.
A major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities supports the annotating of Asian art. A 2006 Institute of Museum and Library Services "Museums for America Grant" award will support the digitization of an additional 1,600 objects, which will be made available online and in a handheld computer tour of our future open storage area.
This project continues to stimulate creative developments and new applications. It offers cutting-edge possibilities for enriched teaching and learning, and for exciting exploration and enjoyment of art.
For more information on the Cornell project, see the
Cornell Institute for Digital Collections.
For information on other museum digitization projects, see AMICO, a consortium of museums providing online images for educational use.
