As Head of Metadata Services & Visual Resources Librarian, Julie Coy shepherds images through an array of uses to support teaching and learning at Haverford.

One ongoing project is digitizing images for the Fine Art Photography collection, part of Quaker & Special Collections. This collection spans the history of photography and includes many kinds of photographic prints, as well as photos in other formats such as glass plate negatives and daguerreotypes. Images are scanned and then cataloged in the TriArte database of TriCo art and artifacts.

Another important task is adding images for teaching use in Artstor, a database of images of cultural artifacts from museums, libraries, and private collections all over the world. This process begins with requests from faculty for images needed for their classes, which will then be published to the Artstor digital library for TriCo access and use with Artstor’s suite of teaching tools. Faculty also turn to Julie for assistance with their publications; when a specific image is needed, it can be scanned to publishers’ specifications.

Images for all of these purposes are captured and digitized using a combination of oversized scanners, digital SLR photography, and light Photoshop editing; then they are cataloged in TriArte, Artstor, or both, adhering to specific standards. All of this work is a team effort, including student assistants, other Libraries colleagues, and also TriCo counterparts.