Recent developments in cultural heritage image databases: Directions for user-centered design

FROM 1995 THROUGH 1997, SEVEN CULTURAL HERITAGE repositories and seven univ ersities collaborated on an extensive demonstration project called the Muse um Educational Site Licensing Project (MESL) to explore the administrative, technical, and pedagogical issues involved in making digital museum images and information available to educational audiences. This article reviews t he MESL pr-eject's methods and findings in a number of areas-descriptive me tadata, database design, interface design, and tools for use. It discusses more recent development, efforts in extending the model for digital image d elivery of visual resources to higher education audiences, Finally, it sugg ests how to proceed by posing a number of user-centered questions about the design goals for networked access to the vast visual resources of the cult ural heritage community Selected pi-ejects from the literature of computer and information science are discussed to stimulate thinking about avenues f or research and to focus project design goals.