After many years of service, the platform that housed the JHU Visual Resources Collection’s Digital Image Database (DID@JHU or MDID) is being retired. The JHU Visual Resources Collection is now available within the ARTstor Digital Library via Shared Shelf. Shared Shelf is a tool that allows the Visual Resources Collection (VRC) to publish our image collection to ARTstor for JHU faculty, students, and staff.
Why are we moving to ARTstor? Having the VRC’s images in ARTstor has many advantages:
- “One Stop Shopping:” The VRC’s images now appear alongside images throughout ARTstor’s collections
- ARTstor’s filtering tools are now available for the VRC’s images (filter your search by date, modern country, or type of object)
- More cataloging data is now visible for the VRC’s images making searching easier
- Names, places, and other related terminology used in VRC image data are now linked to the Getty Vocabularies creating better search results for search terms with alternate names and spellings. (Example: Searching “Syrien” will bring up results for “Syria”)
Need help accessing or using the JHU Visual Resources Collection in ARTstor? Contact the VRC at vrc@jhu.edu with any questions or problems, or if you would like a one-on-one training session or a group training session. Visit the Visual Resources Collection guide for more information and to download our two page guide “Searching for JHU Visual Resources Collection Images in ARTstor.”
For more ways to find images, see the Images page on the library’s Art History guide and see the Finding Images guide.