THE oi.uchicago.edu ORIENTAL INSTITUTE & NOTES NO. 152 WINTER 1997 ©THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO INSTITUTE ON THE INTERNET By Tim Cashion, Membership Coordinator That we are in the midst of "The Information Revolution" is a to view sites of particular interest to them, leading to a total of standard introduction to any news report about the future of edu­ 57,000 files being viewed (many, of course, by multiple users) in cation, business, entertainment, and virtually every other sphere just one week. The viewers lived in over sixty countries, from of life. However, we rarely see exactly how that revolution is oc­ Argentina to Zimbabwe, and there were hits from over 600 col­ curring, how its stages distinguish themselves from one another, leges in the United States alone. By comparison, the first week of or how it can and must be controll ed. This article seeks to pro­ statistics (in December 1994) had 2,813 hits for all files over vide just such an explanation of the impact of electronic informa­ seven days; the Web site now has more hits in an eight-hour pe­ tion and computing on the public face of the Oriental Institute. riod than it did in a week just two years ago! Of course, there are many applications of computers for the The Oriental Institute web site has also received several academic work underway at the Oriental Institute. News & Notes awards from Internet reviewers. In late 1995, the Software Pub- 149 discussed the work of the Afroasiatic Index, while the /995- lishers Association included our site on their list of 100 "excep­ 1996 Annual Report reported on the latest developments of the tional World-Wide Web sites," while in April 1996, the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, and a future issue of News & prestigious McKinley group, through its Magellan Internet direc­ Notes will profile the electronic debut of the Achaemenid Royal tory, gave the Oriental Institute site a four-star rating, its highest tnscriptions under the supervision of Professors Gene Gragg and category. When they reviewed our new Virtual Museum (see be­ Matthew Stolper and Research Archivist Charles E. Jones. All In­ low), it received three stars. These awards, along with the ever­ stitute departments are affected; for example, the Publications increasing number of hits and email messages from our admirers, Office uses Macintosh computers to produce the camera-ready are of course very gratifying and help inspire us to expand and copy (or postscript files) for all Oriental Institute publications improve our electronic services. (including News & Notes), and the Suq uses the Internet to track Electronic Resources at the Oriental Institute are under the down and order special-order books. overall direction of John Sanders, Research Associate and Head The foc us of electronic resources is the Oriental Institute of the Computer Laboratory, and Charles E. Jones, Head of the World-Wide Web site. The real power of all web sites lies in Oriental Institute Research Archives. They are together respon- their structure: because they are composed of groups of indi- sible for the conception and "look" of the site and for most of the vidual files, all ultimately linked r----------------------------, individual files that are now on and accessible from a central ABOUT THIS ISSUE it. Individual departments and home page, one site (and the With the Oriental Institute Museum closed for renovation and faculty members are now begin­ computer [or "server"] on which expansion, many members and friends have asked what we at ning to take over responsibility it is stored) can serve the needs the Oriental Institute are doing these days. The answer is : a for their own pages, partly be­ of both children and adults, of little bit of everything! We have thus decided to devote this is- cause of the advances made in scholars and amateurs, of first- sue of News & Notes to some of these efforts. You will learn web page-design software and time users and regular visitors. about the Suq's rug symposium in October, the newest volume partly due to the workload re­ Thus, much of the computer- from the Publications Office, the wo rk of the Development Of- qui red to maintain the various based research-such as the fice and the current plans for the renovated Museum, and re- files. While the challenges are Achaemenid project-will even- cent innovations at the electronic "home" of the Ori ental not insignificant, the response to tually have its home on the web Institute. In addition, we have our regular features from Mu- our work thus far has been so site, where it can be accessed by seum Education, Membership, and the Travel Program. positive that it is an inspiration scholars from around the world. '--____________________ ___---1 to all of us at the Institute to con- At the same time, the same location provides information on the tinue improving the site. newest Adult Education onsite and correspondence courses. As The technological specification of the web site's hardware new research is produced and new programs are announced, the and software are constantly being updated and improved, largely ·e1evant files are simply updated or modified. due to the generosity of the Institute's friends. In the spring of There is no question that the web site has become a central 1996, the University of Chicago Women's Board generously part of the public face of the Oriental Institute. Over the last two awarded the Oriental Institute a grant supporting the expansion of years, usage statistics have grown as much as the resources on the its computer capabilities with the purchase of a Sun site. During the week of 19-26 October 1996, there were 1,067 SPARCstation and a Macintosh computer system, scanner, and visits (or "hits") to the central home page. While some visitors CD-R (recordable CD-ROM) technology. just popped in before moving on to somewhere else, many stayed continued on page 2 1 oi.uchicago.edu THE WEB SITE: AN OVERVIEW to download it. Typically, each movie covers one alcove in the When you access the home page (located at http://www­ galleries as they formerly appeared, though for some alcoves, twr oi.uchicago.edu/Ol/default.html) in your web browser (the site is views were required to capture centrally-located cases or ver accessible through most graphical and text-based browsers, small objects. Each gallery has an introductory text section, and though some pages are specially enhanced for Netscape), you registration information is provided for the more than 5,000 ex­ will be viewing the home page of the Oriental Institute's web hibited objects that are included in the Virtual Museum. site. Note that, by using your browser to add this page as a book­ The creation of the Virtual Museum took almost a year, with mark, you will not have to type any cumbersome addresses in the Oriental Institute Associate Curator Emily Teeter, Photographer future; the home page can be called up with the bookmark, and Jean Grant, and Computer Laboratory Head John Sanders devot­ you can move around the other pages by simply using the Back ing part of each week for eight months to planning, photograph­ and Forward buttons and by using the many links which we have ing, and preparing text descriptions for all the objects. The incorporated in the documents. alcoves were photographed with a 35 mm still camera, and pro­ The home page serves as a gateway to the various resources cessed images were transferred to Photo CD. Processing these on the site, ranging from the work of individual faculty members still images into seamless QuickTime™ movies was made pos­ to selections from the photographic archives. Choosing one of the sible by the gracious cooperation of the University of Chicago links generally leads to an introductory page that features an in­ Visualization and MultiMedia Laboratory, where Director Chad troduction to the area in question and a detailed table of contents. Kainz and staff member Peter Leonard worked on the project for For example, clicking on the "Oriental Institute: Annual Reports" six months. Full details on the technical creation of the Virtual leads to a screen with graphics of the four most recent Annual Re­ Museum are available from its page on the web site. ports (the 1995-1996 Annual Report will be presented online by There are several ways to tour the Virtual Museum. For the end of 1996). After choosing the specific year, you are pre­ those without high-speed modems or graphical browsers, a text­ sented with a table of contents. Selecting the item in question (for based tour of the galleries is available. Most users, however, want example, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary) calls up the report for to take in one or more of the spectacular movies; perhaps the al­ that year. If it develops that a different year's report contains the cove in question was always a favorite, or there was an area you information you want, you do not need to return to the main An­ never quite were able to fit in while visiting in person. A diagram nual Reports page. Instead, you will find a link at the bottom of of the Museum galleries is color-coded so that when an alcove is the page that presents a synopsis of the work of the CAD and clicked, the appropriate movie is loaded. Two graphical tours are( contains links to all its electronic resources on the web site in place: for those with less time, there is the gallery-by-gallery (sometimes there will be links to items stored on other sites).