The increasing availability of digital images at colleges and universities has offered new opportunities for teaching and learning. In some disciplines and on some campuses, the opportunities are nothing short of transformative. In other cases, however, digital images have had only a modest impact. What are some of the factors associated with the more successful and transformative opportunities that digital images afford? For this study, we visited seven liberal arts college campuses and spoke to a variety of faculty members, librarians and information-services professionals, and other campus administrators. We learned about some of the successful collaborations across the slide library (or visual resources collection), the instructional-technology group, and the library, as well as some of the aspects of campus culture and organizational structure that enabled the most successful collaborations.

A draft report of the findings from this study should be available shortly.

Presentations:

• “Observations on the ARTstor Liberal Arts Hosting Assessment,” Digital Images Seminar, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education – Center for Educational Technology, Middlebury, Vermont, May 3, 2005.
• “Observations from the ARTstor Liberal Arts College Hosting Assessment: Image Use and Support,” NITLE/ACSTC Symposium: Strategic Planning for Digital Assets Management, Atlanta, December 2, 2005.