Expanding Research Possibilities for Visual-Information Seekers with a Renewable Workaround

Rachel Harris, Scholarly Publishing Librarian, Concordia University Library

Visual-information seekers, such as art historians, and the information professionals who support them, are familiar with the difficulties of finding suitable primary sources online. For users who seek out and examine visual information in the arts as primary sources, the performance of information systems and users’ search strategies can mean the difference between the success and failure of searching for, accessing, and analyzing diverse visual content. These difficulties may be aggravated by the digitization of specific formats and genres, especially zines, artist books, photo books, picture books, by drawbacks within commonly used systems (i.e. Google Images, InternetArchive, specialized databases, catalogues), and by the metadata and the availability of visual content within these systems. Beyond describing the difficulties, this presentation focuses on the second of two solution directions that could alleviate user frustrations: 1) improve the systems and 2) develop reusable information literacy workarounds. Where improving the systems could be costly, time-consuming, and involved, information support is immediately viable. User responses to image browsing scenarios, analysis of frequently used retrieval systems in image research, scholarly correspondence, and my art history research and teaching experience gathering hundreds of book illustrations inform an open solution. Playing with layout settings, advanced searching, reverse image searching, multiple retrieval systems, mindfulness techniques, and data management can translate into shareable quick tips. Not only can an openly licenced one-page document or video with tips and tricks help fellow researchers and their students advance visual studies, but it can also be adapted if and when the systems change.

Twitter hashtag: #CULibraryForum