The Albert Einstein Image and Impact Exhibit is presented by the American Institute of Physics’ Center for History and Physics. The web exhibit is based on a traveling exhibit by the same organization, and it was reformatted for the web in 1996. Since then, it has been updated as new information about Einstein’s life and work was discovered, and was reformatted again in preparation for the 2005 World Year of Physics and Einstein Great Papers Centennial to better accommodate technical other user needs.
The site is very easy to navigate, and it provides various different options for viewing. From the exhibit home, visitors can select any section of the main exhibit, view a “brief version” of the exhibit, download the site as a PDF, or click on links to access complementary materials such as historians’ essays and other Einstein info and links. A site contents link contextualizes the main and brief exhibits in terms of the rest of the site and the collection. Hypertext links provide easy access to other collection objects, the home collections of exhibited objects, and other exhibits and further information.
Collection Principles
The collection principles for the digital collection are not explicitly stated as far as I can tell. The exhibit is based on the traveling exhibit, and the collection draws objects from various disparate collections. There are various places in the website inviting visitors to offer feedback, so presumably visitor feedback may play some role in the reformatting of exhibits. In a section encouraging people to donate money, the site mentions that experts are consulted in the building of each exhibit.
The photos of the Emile Segre Visual Archive are donated from personal collections. The site states that the organization is “always delighted to receive donations of photos, films, videotapes, and other visual materials.” It invites formal portraits as well of snapshots of scientists at work or outside of work contexts, and invites possible donors to contact the institute. The institute offers tax deductions for contributions of visual materials.
Object Characteristics
The online collection includes pictures, cartoons, voice clips, and essays on Einstein’s work. The main exhibit consists of 100 photographs, accompanied by descriptive text in a chronological order placing the photographs in a timeline of Einstein’s life and accomplishments. Individual photographs in the exhibit are presented as thumbnails, which can be clicked on to open a page with larger images. These images are stored as gifs and range from 500 x 300 pixels to 450 x 450 pixels. When accepting photos as donations, the institute prefers “4’x5’ negatives or digital scans on a CD-ROM - scanned at a target size of larger than 8x10 inches and at 300dpi.”
Metadata
Each thumbnail is located beside a paragraph explaining the time period in his life from which the photograph came. Each thumbnail has a descriptive caption beneath it and links to a large image of the photograph accompanied by an expanded caption, a date or estimated date, photographer credits (when available), copyright information, and information about the photograph’s collection. When images of illegible writing are shown, a transcript is provided alongside it. When group images are provided, such as class photos, listings of all individuals are provided.
Additional metadata is provided for the user on a page called Information About this Exhibit. This page includes descriptive information about the web exhibit, including each time it was reformatted and why. Administrative metadata includes the names of a number of contributors to the website and their contributions, as well as copyright information, financial supporters for the exhibit, and the names of others who assisted in the establishment of the web exhibit. This page also provides links to other physics and Einstein exhibits, as well as other formats of this exhibit.
Intended Audience
The intended audience appears to be broad. The excellent structure and high quality of materials, as well as the collaboration with various academic institutions, suggests that the site is intended for academic and other serious research. However, features such as the brief version of the exhibit (with the sentence ‘Short on time? View the BRIEF VERSION of this exhibit’) suggest that the exhibit is aimed at casual interested parties in the general population. Also, the availability of a downloadable PDF version and a text version of the site, as well as site maps, make it clear that the site designers intended to suit the site to the needs and preferences of the visitors. The option of viewing the site in Spanish also suggests that the site designers wanted to make it available to a much larger audience than an English-only site would allow.
No comments:
Post a Comment