http://www.artstor.org/

According to the site:

“The Artstor Digital Library is an image database featuring an unparalleled range of images from some of the world’s leading museums, photo archives, scholars, and artists in one easily-navigated repository. It is the most comprehensive image resource available for educational and scholarly use, with many rare and important collections available nowhere else.

The library is constantly growing with new collections added monthly, continually expanding our areas of reference and study. All images are accompanied by comprehensive metadata and are rights-cleared for educational use. “

• Overview:
  • The collection “includes more than 2 million high-quality images for education and research from a wide variety of contributors around the world. ” Today, the Artstor Digital Library shares more than 1.9 million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences from outstanding museums, photo archives, photographers, scholars, and artists.”
• What search options does the database offer? What information is provided on the digitization of the contents of the database?
  • Search
    • ArtStor has a Keyword search screen, and it also has an advanced search option .  The Advanced Search screen has three general options:  Search for words or phrases, Search by date or date range, and Search by geography, classification, and/or collections.
      • The Search for words or phrases option notes: “You can enter multiple words and use quotes to indicate exact search terms.”  There is a drop-down menu and the ability to do Boolean searches.  The options for searching in the drop-down menu are: In any Field, which is the defaul; Title; Creator; Location; Repository; Subject; Material; Style or Period; Work Type; Culture; Description; Technique; and Number.
      • The Search by date or date range option notes: “Enter a year or range (numbers only) to limit your search.”  There is a drop-down menu for the dates, allowing searching either From or To CE (AD), which is the default, or BCE (BC) which is the drop-down option.
      • The search by geography, classification, and/or collections option notes:” You can narrow your search results by filtering on both the Geography and Classification areas.”  There are 206 options under Geography, with the ability to use a check box to select one or more geographical area.  The Classification area has sixteen options, with the ability to use a check box to select one or more classification, such as Architecture and City Planning and/or Graphic Design and Illustration.  The Collections area has ten options, including ArtStor, Holy Cross Collections (with several subheadings), and Shared Shelf Commons Collections.
    • In addition, ArtStor has a Filtered Search which, according to the site, presents the option to “Filter your results by one of 16 Artstor classifications, geographical area or country, and date range.”
    • Finally, Artstor has a Browse option, which, the site notes, allows users to “Navigate through Artstor’s categories such as geography or media to discover images of interest.”  It also allows users to browse Teaching Resources, a valuable collection of “Curriculum Guides, AP® Resources, Surveys and Case Studies: Art History, Humanities and Social Sciences.”
  • Downloading
    • “If you export or download images or other content from the Artstor Digital Library, you must use one of the designated export functions provided in the Library. You may only export or download content to a password-protected, access-restricted site.”
• Facts:
  • Date range; BC to present
  • Publisher: “Artstor is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways”
  • Publisher About page; http://ezproxy.holycross.edu:2203/mission
  • Object type; Images
  • Location of original materials; China, France, UK, US
  • Exportable image?; Yes, with limits.  “You may only export or download content to a password-protected, access-restricted site.”
  • Facsimile image?; A search of the term “Facsimile Image’ reveals that here are 1.961 facsimile images in the collection
  • Full text searchable?; Keyword searchable
  • Titles list links; N/A

• History / Provenance:
  • Artstor was created during the late 1990s, thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Its first phase, the Mellon International Dunhuang Archive, was  “a digital repository of high-resolution images from 40 grottoes in the Gobi desert, along with images of silk banners and manuscripts from the caves brought to western Europe by English and French explorers at the turn of the 20th century. ”  Since then, “Dozens of collections from a wide variety of cultures across all major time periods have followed, including a collection of 190,000 old master drawings originally photographed at over 100 different repositories, 20 years of contemporary New York City gallery shows, archives of Islamic textiles, the restored Ghiberti “Gates of Paradise,” African masks, medieval manuscripts, images of all exhibitions shown at MoMA, and many others. Today, the Artstor Digital Library shares more than 1.9 million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences from outstanding museums, photo archives, photographers, scholars, and artists.”

• Reviews
  •  Gregory, Tory R. , “ARTstor”, Reference Reviews, Vol. 19 Iss: 8, pp.47 – 48     http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09504120510632813
  • Schroeder, Eunice. Reviewed Work: ARTstor
    Notes Second Series, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Mar., 2009), pp. 546-549
    Published by: Music Library Association
    Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27669896
    Page Count: 4
• Access   Artstor has Restricted Access
• “The Artstor Digital Library is a licensed resource that is only made available to individuals at nonprofit institutions and individual scholars.You may not sublicense, or provide others with access to, the electronic database itself (such as by sharing your password).”

• Info from Publisher
  • Artstor “Contact Us” page: http://ezproxy.holycross.edu:2203/form/contact-us
• Other Info
  • Permitted and Prohibited Uses page:  http://ezproxy.holycross.edu:2203/content/permitted-prohibited-uses
  • Copyright page:  http://ezproxy.holycross.edu:2203/copyright