The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) based at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham has secured funding to support institutional digitisation skills across the UK arts education sector.

VADS is to lead the creation of a national community of experts in digitisation across the creative and visual arts higher education sector, after securing funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

Knitted elephants from the Montse Stanley Collection, courtesy of the University of Southampton Library

The Look-here! project will bring together, facilitate and build upon the existing skills of the six institutional partners to enhance and embed digitisation skills across the sector. Partners include the University for the Creative Arts, University of Southampton, The Arts University College at Bournemouth, University College Falmouth, University of the Arts London, and University of Brighton.

Knitted beaded purse from the Montse Stanley Collection, courtesy of the University of Southampton Library

The project will see the creation and publication of a digitisation model developed upon the national collection of knitting patterns and related objects held by the University of Southampton. The model will then be tested and refined by the partners. This will result in the digitisation of a wide range of artefacts including books, journals, magazines, patterns and personal papers, and also a number of more unusual objects including clothing, knitting tools and ephemera. These collections will be made available freely for educational use to the arts and wider community through the national online hosting service provided by VADS (http://www.vads.ac.uk).

The knowledge, skills and experience acquired by the partners through the modelling process will be shared with the education and heritage sectors and VADS will provide information, advice and guidance to institutions interested in engaging in their own digitisation projects. The project will also see a series of workshops and seminars which will be open to the education and heritage sectors, and the creation of a series of case studies and practitioner guides.

Leigh Garrett, Director of VADS said: “This is an exciting and pioneering project which will bring a wide range of arts education providers and collection holders together to use a digital platform to make collections more widely available to students and staff across the education sector”.

Linda Newington, Faculty Librarian, Law, Arts and Social Sciences, University of Southampton said, “we welcome this exciting opportunity to promote and engage staff, students and the wider community from across the globe with the important and unique collections held here at Winchester”.

The home knitter, 1876, Richard Rutt Library (part of the Knitting Reference Library), courtesy of the University of Southampton Library

The project will run from October until February 2011. For further information please contact Amy Robinson (amy@vads.ac.uk or 01252 892723).

Established in 1996, the Visual Arts Data Service provides a national online image hosting service, which now consists of approximately 100,000 items from over 300 collections – these images can be used freely for educational use. The collections can be found at: http://www.vads.ac.uk.

This project is one of 11 projects funded under JISC’s e-Content programme which is running from September 2009 to February 2011. Projects are aligned under two strands, some looking at the skills and strategies required in universities to embed digitisation as a core part of its remit, whilst others are creating enhanced digital resources by bringing together disparate collection of related digitised material.

Four thousand images from the Design Council Slide Collection have been launched online today, providing a unique insight into the history of British design and its promotion by the UK government from the 1940s to the early 1990s.

‘Bond Bug’ three-wheeler car made by the Reliant Motor Co. Designed by Tom Karen of Ogle
Design and launched in 1970 © The Design Council/The Manchester Metropolitan University

The Design Council was established in 1944 and is the UK’s national strategic body for design. The images relate closely to the changing scope and policies of the Council over a period of almost fifty years, providing valuable visual evidence of the ways in which design has been evaluated and promoted throughout this period.

They show a wide variety of products such as tableware, furniture, lighting, toys, domestic appliances, textiles, wallpapers, office equipment, engineering components and machinery, as well as other areas of design such as architecture, town planning, interior design, graphic design and corporate identity.

The collection also contains many unique images that record the Council’s own activities and initiatives, such as its annual award scheme and the exhibitions it organised or contributed to in the UK and abroad, including ‘Britain Can Make It’ and the ‘Festival of Britain’.

Box-office computer system for theatres and performance venues, manufactured by Space-Time Systems Ltd., and winner of a Design Council Award for computer software in 1986. © The Design Council/The Manchester Metropolitan University

An illustrated online guide to the collection has also been launched today. The guide aims to indicate the strengths of the collection, enabling users to exploit it more fully as a resource for learning and research.

‘The collection is an incredibly rich resource for anyone interested in design’ says David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council. ‘In particular, it demonstrates the Design Council’s long track record of promoting the use of design to strengthen the UK’s economy and improve society.’

The slide collection was transferred to the Manchester Metropolitan University in 1995, and since then a series of digitisation projects have resulted in over 13,000 images (nearly two-thirds of the collection) being made available online through the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS).

The expansion of the Design Council Slide Collection on VADS is one feature of the new collections and enriched website that has been funded by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) as part of its pioneering digitisation programme. JISC Digitisation Programme Officer, Ben Showers, said:

“JISC’s investment in enriching digital resources is a real commitment to preserving resources for the use of generations to come. VADS is an exciting and hugely important collection of unique and valuable images, and the enhancement of the website will makes these resources even more accessible for teachers, researchers and students across the creative arts.”

Action Man plus spare clothing. 1979 Design Index item. Manufactured by Pailitoy © The Design Council/The Manchester Metropolitan University

See the Design Council Slide Collection and the online guide at:
www.vads.ac.uk/collections/DCSC.html

See all of the VADS collections at: http://www.vads.ac.uk and visit the Design Council’s website at www.designcouncil.org.uk

The Design Council Slide Collection digitisation project was also supported with funding from the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council).