New Media Consortium
Online Conference on Visual Literacy
Madison Digital Image Database
April 5-6, 2005
Kevin Hegg, Andreas Knab, Christina Updike
James Madison University
Agenda







Background
Current use
Main features
Product demo
Experiences
Future development
Conclusion
What is MDID?




The Madison Digital Image Database (MDID) is a
freely distributed system for managing and
integrating digital images into the teaching and
learning process
Instructors search and browse MDID collections
online to retrieve images for building “slideshows,”
which can be organized, annotated and archived for
future use
Students access instructor slideshows online to
review for classes or conduct research
The ImageViewer is an application used in the
classroom to project slideshows on a large screen
Project Impetus


In 1997, newly established general education
guidelines resulted in a large increase in the
number of art history survey classes taught at
JMU
Became impractical to teach with 35 mm slides
•
•
•
•

Difficult to find slides
Difficult to share slides
Expensive to acquire and maintain slide collection
Quality of slides deteriorating over time
MDID was developed as a solution to expanding
enrollment in the art history survey classes
Project History





1997: Initial development
1998: Implemented at JMU
2001: Made available for free download
2003: Mellon Foundation grant for MDID2
development
2004: Open source release of MDID2
MDID use at JMU

Slideshows created since Fall 2004
• 2,112 created by 84 instructors
• 581 available to students

Content
• 7 active collections, plus “My Images” (ranging from art and
architecture to histology and landmines)
• 57,743 image records
• 209 video records

Usage
• Close to 140 logins per day on average (Spring 2005)

Personal images
• 2,187 added since Fall 2004
MDID Users in Higher Education

More than 20 known institutions use MDID 1

More than 15 known institutions use MDID 2

More than 260 participants on users mailing list
Institutions Who Report Using MDID2
American University
Arizona State University
Davidson College
East Carolina University
Grinnell College
Illinois Institute of Technology
James Madison University
La Trobe University
New Mexico State University
Otis College of Art & Design
Portland State University
Temple University
University of Manitoba
University of Missouri
University of Washington
West Virginia University
Wheaton College
MDID2 Features







Multiple collections
Custom catalog data structure
Search and browse functions
Cross-collection searching
Instructors’ personal images uploaded to and
stored in MDID
Light table for slideshow preparation
Tools for creating and managing slideshows
MDID2 Features






Instructors may annotate images and slides
Web-based slideshow viewer
ImageViewer classroom application
Packaged slideshows for offline presentation
Students may access slideshows as PDF files to
print study guides and flash cards
Open Source License, GNU GPL
Demonstration

JMU hosts a working MDID2 installation
• Open to the public
• Fully functional
• URL: http://mdid.org/demo/

Please click this link to see the demonstration:
• http://mdid.org/Papers/nmc2005/demo.htm
JMU Experience with MDID

Collaboration between many groups across
campus was key to successful implementation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Teaching faculty
Visual collection curator or librarian
Software developers
System administrators
Faculty development support
Classroom technology support
Digital production support
Administrative support
MDID Survey




Survey conducted in Fall 2004
Approximately 300 students participated
5 survey art history courses
1 upper level ancient studies course
MDID Usefulness
in and outside the classroom
85% Very
Useful
14% Somewhat
Useful
1% Not Very
Useful
How would you rate
the quality of the digital images?
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
79% Excellent
19% Good
2% Fair
0% Poor
Student Reactions
“Being able to print the image out for flashcards
was a great help for studying.”
“I always use the print view for taking notes in
class.”
“The overall quality is better than most website
images and clearer than the slides.”
Faculty Reactions

We like
•
•
•
•

the flexibility of creating image shows
customizing with annotation
adding personal images
presentation features
Many instructors agree that students are
more prepared!
Upcoming Features




Next major release scheduled for early
Summer 2005
Faculty will be able to upload their own
images to any collection
Curators can moderate image
submissions targeted for inclusion in a
collection
Institutions using MDID2 can share
collections with each other
Involve Faculty in Collection Building



Curator allows faculty to upload their own
images to a collection
Faculty optionally mark uploaded images
for inclusion in the collection
Curator reviews each faculty-submitted
image
Remote Collections


Allow MDID installations to access appropriate
collections on other systems
To users, remote collections look like local
collections
• Search for images
• Add images to slideshows
• Annotate images

When are remote collections useful?
• Universities with separate campuses and multiple
MDID servers
• Institutions offering public domain content to others
Miscellaneous Development Plans




Improved search and browse capabilities
Support for other media types (e.g. video,
QuickTime VR)
Image service for delivering larger images
Virtual galleries/exhibitions
Conclusion



Technology and user expectations will continue to evolve
More and better visual content is important to promote visual
literacy
Digital image collections should support a variety of
disciplines
• Among others, JMU hosts art, architecture, and histology
collections and a humanities and science film collection

Sharing content between digital image databases is critical
• Digitizing existing analog materials is expensive, difficult and
time-consuming
• Big overlap in content digitization across institutions
• Many institutions, including JMU, already have digital image
collections that they are willing to share freely
Information
Authors
 Kevin Hegg
Software Engineer
heggkj@jmu.edu
 Andreas Knab
Computer Systems Engineer
knab2ar@jmu.edu
 Christina Updike
Visual Resources Specialist
updikecb@jmu.edu
Further Information
 Visit http://mdid.org/
 Email mdid@jmu.edu
•
Product and company names
mentioned in this presentation
may be the trademarks of their
respective owners.