Visual Image Service - Digital Images Online

The Visual Image Service (VIS) builds, manages and enables access to a range of web-based digital image collections as well as providing links to recommended online resources subject areas using Luna Insight software.  Image access is via the LUNA user-interface (what is LUNA?) which has search and viewing tools that are specially designed for research, teaching and learning with images.  In LUNA you can create your own specific media groups, slide shows and presentations and share them on the internet.  You can also use LUNA's web functionality to copy web links or widgets to other applications.  You can self-register (set-up a private username & password) in order to create and share your personal media groups and presentations and then import images via Flickr.  If you have any queries about using LUNA or need more information on VIS training sessions on how to access and use Birkbeck's LUNA collections please contact VIS.

Recommended Online Resources by Subject Area

• History of Art, visual culture and the Humanities.
• Sciences
• Social sciences, Geography and History.

Birkbeck's LUNA collections

• Birkbeck History (Open Access, no log-in required)
• Diary of Mrs Birkbeck (Open Access, no log-in required)
• Garden History Online (Birkbeck staff & students only)
• London Architecture Online (Birkbeck staff & students only)

Other Digital Image Collections via LUNA

• LUNA Commons - open portal to a range of LUNA Community Collections.
• AMICA Library - 108,000 art images from museums worldwide.
• Garden History: Catena Archive - 1,720 images of historic gardens and landscapes.
• NASA Images - 100,000 images and video clips of astronomy and space exploration.

New collections recently added to the recommended online resources

• ARTstor - is a digital library of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences with a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes. Select on or off campus login option, Birkbeck IT Services username and password needed for off campus use.
• Credo Reference - gives Birkbeck Staff and students direct access to 46,400 images in the Bridgeman Art Library including 640 paintings in the National Gallery London. Select on or off campus login option, Birkbeck IT Services username and password needed for off campus use.
• Film and Sound Online - Birkbeck College has direct access to this service
• Images for Education - news from JISC Collections - due in summer 2010: 500 hours of film and 56,000 photos of "Our History" covering UK and world history during the last 25 years. Part of the JISC MediaHub. Birkbeck IT Services username and password needed to access this resource.
• Historical Photographs of China - a collaboration between the University of Bristol, University of Lincoln and the Institut d'Asie Orientale.
• the Wenceslaus Hollar Digital Collection - 2,455 illustrative prints of 17th century England from the University of Toronto Library.

Advice and Guidance

• LUNA - online help.
• JISC Advisory Service.
• Still images, moving images, sound advice - a guide to creating and using digital media.
• Internet for image searching - a guide to finding copyright cleared digital images.
• Copyright issues:
  • Creative Commons - guide to rights attributions.
  • Creative Commons license attributions - Flickr guide to rights attributions in Creative Commons.