Finding Illustrations

Roger Mills

The problem

• Illustrations in books/journals are usually not individually referenced in databases

• Photographic collections are usually subscription services and not accessible free online

• Describing pictures in words is not easy

Technical Advisory Service for Images – TASI www.tasi.ac.uk/index.html

Images in printed publications

• Printed indexes e.g. Index Londiniensis

• Library catalogues: search keywords like ‘illustrated’ or look for ‘ill.’ in notes

• Bibliographic databases e.g. TREECD: may have specific keyword but often not fully indexed

Really?

Image Search Engines

• general search engines, like Google or Altavista• specialised image search engines - services devoted

to indexing images or multimedia• meta- search engines, which pass on search requests

to more than one search engine and then bring back the results.

• collection-based search engines - services that index a single or small number of image collections. Large digital libraries or commercial stock photo collections, like Corbis, typically offer such search engine-like facilities.

• content-based search engines which 'index' visual characteristics of an image, such as its shape and colour

General search engines

• AllTheWeb Picture Search / FASThttp://www.alltheweb.com/

• Altavista Image Searchhttp://uk.altavista.com/image/

• Google Image Searchhttp://images.google.com/

• Lycos Multimedia Searchhttp://multimedia.lycos.com/

Googleimages.google.co.uk/

Knitting according to Google

Specialised Image Search Engines

• Ditto.comhttp://www.ditto.com/

• Picsearchhttp://www.picsearch.com/

PicSearchwww.picsearch.com/

General meta-search engines

• Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/)

• Webcrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com/)

• Mamma (http://www.mamma.com/)

• Fazzle (http://www.fazzle.com/)

Specialised meta-search engines

• Ithaki (http://images.ithaki.net/) • Ixquick (http://www.ixquick.com/) 'Spring-board' searching • Photoseek (http://www.photoseek.net/) • Search 22 Picture and Image Search

Engines (http://www.search-22.com/images.html)

Search22www.search-22.com/downloads/images.php

Collection-based Image Search Engines

• Corbishttp://www.corbis.com/

• Getty Images Creativehttp://creative.gettyimages.com/

• Webshotshttp://www.webshots.com/

• 1StopStockhttp://www.1stopstock.com/

Stock Photo Collections

• Brand X Pictureshttp://www.brandxpictures.com/

• Magnum Photoshttp://www.magnumphotos.com/

• Bridgeman Art Libraryhttp://www.bridgeman.co.uk/

• Mary Evans Picture Libraryhttp://www.mepl.co.uk/

• Clipart.com (was ArtToday)http://www.clipart.com/

• National Geographic Imageshttp://www.ngsimages.com/

• Christie's Imageshttp://www.christiesimages.com/

• nonstockhttp://www.nonstock.com/

• Comstockhttp://www.comstock.com/

• Photos To Gohttp://www.photostogo.com/

• eStockhttp://estockphoto.com/

• Photospinhttp://www.photospin.com/

• Hulton Archivehttp://www.hultonarchive.com/

• Stockbytehttp://www.stockbyte.com/

• Index Stock Imageryhttp://www.indexstock.com/

• TimePixhttp://www.timepix.com/

• Freeimageshttp://www.freeimages.co.uk/

Freeimageswww.freeimages.co.uk/

Stock Photo Collections

• More can be found via the membership lists of the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA - http://www.bapla.org) and the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA - http://www.stockindustry.org/).

BAPLAwww.bapla.org/

Content-based Search Engines

• IBM’s QBIC: Query by Image Content

http://wwwqbic.almaden.ibm.com/

seen in action on the Hermitage Museum website http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/

• IIDR projects:• http://www.unn.ac.uk/iidr/research/cbir.html • IIDR links to other content-based projects:

• http://www.unn.ac.uk/iidr/links/cbirlinks.html

Institute for Image Data Researchwww.unn.ac.uk/iidr/

Content Managementwww-3.ibm.com/software/data/cm/cmgr/mp/

Subject gateways

• BIOME http://biome.ac.uk

• RDN Resource Discovery Networkhttp://www.rdn.ac.uk/resourcefinder

• HEAHigher Education Academy (formerly LTSN)

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/• AHDS Visual Arts

http://vads.ahds.ac.uk

BIOMEbiome.ac.uk

RDNwww.rdn.ac.uk/resourcefinder

LTSN bioscience ImageBank Pilotbio.ltsn.ac.uk/imagebank/

Subject-based collections

• Oxford Scientific Filmshttp://www.osf.uk.com/

• Nature Picture Libraryhttp://www.agpix.com/naturepicturelibrary

• Plant Image Galleryhttp://www.plant-pictures.com/

• Vascular plant image libraryhttp://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/imaxxmag.htm

• Bristol Biomed Image Archivehttp://www.brisbio.ac.uk/

• ARKivehttp://www.arkive.org.uk/

• Lifesignhttp://www.lifesign.ac.uk/

Oxford Scientific Films www.osf.uk.com/

AGPixwww.agpix.com/

Nature Picture Librarywww.naturepl.com/

Plant Image Gallerywww.plant-pictures.com/

Vascular plant image librarywww.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/imaxxmag.htm

ARKivewww.arkive.org.uk/

Tree of Lifetolweb.org/tree/