MoMA Releases Digital Archive of More Than 30,000 Exhibition Images

First MoMA Exhibition: Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, van Gogh, 1929

The Museum of Modern Art has released an extensive digital archive that chronicles its exhibitions from when the museum opened its doors in 1929 to today.  The archive features more than thirty-five hundred exhibitions and more than thirty-three thousand installation photographs, as well as primary documents such as press releases, checklists, catalogues, and artist lists.   MoMA said, “By making these unique resources available at no charge, the exhibition history digital archive directly aligns with the museum’s mission of encouraging an ever-deeper understanding of modern and contemporary art and fostering scholarship.” Explore the digital archive on MoMA’s website!

 

Photoshop Actions

Are you spending too much time with repetitive tasks in Photoshop? Photoshop actions allows you to record a process and save that information as an action which you can then use for other tasks down the road. Not only that, you can edit actions after the fact and customize them to suit your needs.

While you can make an unlimited amount of actions, including color correction, below is an example of how to resize images ideal for Powerpoint. Take some time to plan the steps of the actions before recording.

1. Select “New Action” from the bottom right of the Actions window. Title the action and click “Record.”

 

2. To resize the image, go to the Image menu and select Image Size. Change the resolution to 150dpi.

 

3. Now SAVE AS a JPEG to a specific location on your computer.

4. Finally, click the “Stop” button at the bottom left of the Actions window. You can now use this action on individual images by pressing the “Play” button or Batch Process an entire folder.

 

 

 

Cultural Collections at Yale Now Available for Free Online

A new open access policy at Yale has made it possible for the University to release more than 250,000 digital images online, freely available to the public through their collective catalog. For public domain material, no license will be required and no restrictions will be placed upon use of the images.

The result is that scholars, artists, students, and citizens the world over will be able to use these collections for study, publication, teaching and inspiration.

Via Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications.

Celebrate Preservation Week!

Did you know? This week is National Preservation Week. From April 24-30, the Library of Congress and libraries around the nation will provide guidance in preserving digital images and other files.

Thursday, April 28th the Library of Congress is hosting a free webinar at 1pm Central Time titled Preserving Your Personal Digital Memories. Registration is required, and the form is available here.

Digital photos, electronic documents, and other new media are fragile and require special care to keep them useable. But preserving digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with. As new technologies appear for creating and saving our personal digital information, older ones become obsolete, making it difficult to access older content. Learn about the nature of the problem and hear about some simple, practical tips and tools to help you keep your digital memories safe.

As always, if you have any questions about managing your digital images, please contact the VRC.