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Digital Image Collections and Services, SPEC Kit 335, Published by ARL

ARL has published Digital Image Collections and Services, SPEC Kit 335, which examines how research libraries and their parent institutions have responded to the transition from analog to digital images and the growth of digital images available from commercial vendors and/or created within institutions or their libraries. The survey gathers information about current practices relating to the development and management of institutional digital image collections and the acquisition and use of licensed image databases.

This SPEC Kit explores the infrastructure and support provided by research libraries and/or their institutions for the creation and use of digital images in teaching, learning, and research, including systems and platforms, cataloging and metadata, access and training, services and service points, and copyright and other rights issues. The publication also identifies collaborative strategies among ARL member institutions for providing digital images.

The SPEC Kit includes examples of digital image collection websites, finding aids, image-use training materials, copyright and use-rights policies, selection policies, descriptions of digital image service points, and digital collection promotional materials.

Ordering Information


SPEC Kit 335, Digital Image Collections and Services
Mary Kandiuk, Aaron Lupton, and Catherine Davidson
August 2013 • 194 pp.

Online edition

SPEC Kit 335
ISBN 1-59407-904-8 • $50 • Password or IP access

The SPEC Kit Collection provides online access to all titles published from 2006 to the present (SPEC Kit 292– ). Password access is $400. IP access is $300 ARL members/$400 all others.

Print edition

ISBN 1-59407-903-X • $35 ARL members/$45 all others

Shipping and Handling

US: UPS Ground, $10/publication
Canada: UPS Ground, $15/per publication
International and Rush Orders: Call (301) 362-8196 or e-mail pubs@arl.org for quote.

2013 subscription, six issues (334–339), shipping included (additional postage may apply outside North America) • ISSN 0160-3582 • $225 ARL members/$300 all others.

Order online IP access and print from:

ARL Publications Distribution Center
PO Box 531
Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0531
Phone: (301) 362-8196
Fax: (240) 396-2479
E- mail: pubs@arl.org

Payment by check, money order, MasterCard, or Visa is accepted. Make check or money order payable in US funds to the Association of Research Libraries, Federal ID #52-0784198-N.


The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.

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