The Queensland College of Art Library houses a large collection of images in slide and digital format. The collection currently contains approximately 60,000 slides and 3,000 digital images representing images from Australia and overseas, from all eras, prehistoric to contemporary, and from a broad spectrum of movements and media. The digital images are contemporary Australian, but include a growing international component.
Art slides and digital images often provide the only access for viewing contemporary art and images from the history of art unavailable in any other format. All the slides and digital images in the collection are of a high quality as professionals have photographed them from the original art work.
The collection includes all the new media:
computer art installations performance art inter-media land art site specific art, etc
as well as traditional media:
animation fabric design metalware book art fashion painting ceramics film and video photography design glassware printmaking commercial art industrial art sculpture drawing interior design textile art graphic design jewellery
Standing subscriptions exist to a number of major slide collections including:
These include a range of contemporary European material and USA material
Accompanying notes for some slides are shelved on top of the slide cabinets. These cannot be borrowed, but may be photocopied.
The slides are stored in filing cabinets at the front of the new library under the silver sign: "Images". Slides are suspended in plastic sleeves with the artist's name at the top left.
The physical arrangement of the collection is by Country - Century - Artist using the Simons and Tansey Classification scheme, with artists then arranged alphabetically.
Another cabinet contains slide sets.
Selected sets marked with coloured stickers are catalogued onto QCA LIDA (see Catalogue access). The LIDA project aimed to make the sets far more accessible than just the general title information of the set allowed as individual slides held in the sets could be searched for. This project is incomplete and awaiting further funding.
Each slide label is colour coded to indicate the medium used in the artwork, for quick fingertip searching and browsing. Colour code guide charts are hung near the cabinets for quick reference. Hand held colour code guides are also available.
3 projectors (2 for loan), light boxes and a slide scanner of very low resolution as an attachment to the InfoServices scanner are available in the library. Higher resolution scans can be made with a film and slide scanner located in the student labs. The Library also has a Nikon SuperCoolscanner in the Images Office capable of creating high resolution scans for academics, under the CAL agreement.
Borrowing images:
100 slides may be borrowed by students. More by request. Students need to come
to QCA Library to search, browse and borrow.
A service for academics and educational designers is available. They can phone or e-mail Jennifer Brasher with keywords for classroom requirements.
E-mail: j.brasher@griffith.edu.au
Phone: 3875 3131.
Catalogue access:
The Library is constantly adding to a database catalogue available for QCA Library
clients and Griffith University Clients. It is called QCA LIDA: Library
Image Database Art. 56,000 text records for images are available for searching
in the database.
The LIDA database is available on a Flat Screen PowerMac located in the Images area in the library. The software has the ability to be networked across campuses in the future, subject to funding.
The database provides a range of access options including:
This field structure is based on international standards for the description of images developed by the international Visual Resources Association for record sharing.
Subject access is based on the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) developed by the Art History Information Program (AHIP), a project of the J. Paul Getty Foundation.
At present approximately 3,000 digital images are available by request. Many from the Australian Artists Project are also available in slide format, catalogued and searchable on LIDA . Recent acquisitions in the new digital image format are in the process of being catalogued, and may be viewed on request. Current acquisitions are mainly from contemporary New York exhibitions, but digital images from all eras will be purchased as they become available.
The project hopes to gain funding to attach a small digital image of the artwork to each text record for faster efficient searching and selection choices. These thumbnails would link to larger digital images where available. It is hoped that these will become available over the University network - subject to copyright restrictions under the AVCC agreement.
The thumbnail project for slides would greatly enhance access, significantly reduce deterioration of the collection, and the time spent by clients and staff searching for the particular image required. Importantly, direct access to the collection for electronic classrooms needs would also result.
Location: Queensland College of Art Library
Connect to the Griffith University Library Online Catalogue