Out of Storage and into the Classroom: Revealing the Spencer Museum of Art Collections through the KU Libraries Information Gateway

Abstract

This poster will introduce a University of Kansas project to provide greater access to collections in the Spencer Museum of Art. With over 25,000 objects in its collection, the Spencer can only exhibit a small fraction of its holdings at any time, thus limiting impact of these works of art. The museum recently digitally documented its collection with funding from a variety of sources, including a grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services. Through a partnership with Digital Initiatives, over 18,000 digital images and catalog records of the Museum's permanent collection are now available open access. A program of Information Services (Libraries and Information Technology), Digital Initiatives is responsible for designing and implementing digital services needed to create, display, discover, store, and preserve scholarly information in a digital format. Digital Initiatives provides campus-wide access to a growing collection of images for teaching and research through the Libraries’ Information Gateway, and the Libraries provide instruction on how to integrate images into the classroom. The poster will illustrate how this process unfolded, the impact of the partnership, and will emphasize the challenges and benefits of collaboration for the Museum, the Libraries, the KU community, and beyond.