Britannica’s Image Quest opens one million rights-cleared digital images from top global picture libraries to education.
Encyclopædia Britannica (UK) Ltd
Stand W19
BETT 2011 — OLYMPIA, LONDON
12-15 January 2011
|
 |
- For the first time ever, educational institutions and public libraries have access to more than one million digital images from more than 40 of the best global picture libraries, with Image Quest from Encyclopædia Britannica (www.quest.eb.com). Fully rights-cleared for educational use, Image Quest brings together collections from Dorling Kindersley Images, Getty Images, the National Portrait Gallery of London, De Agostini Editore, the Natural History Museum, the National Geographic Society, Oxford Scientific, the Wellcome Institute and many other leading names, into an easy-to-use online portal.
- Fully interoperable with any Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or Learning Platform, Image Quest provides staff and students with quick, easy and safe access to the highest quality images from around the world. Teachers can use the images in their lesson plans and classroom activities and in projects such as the school website, newsletters, flyers, or bulletins. Students can use them to enhance homework assignments, school or course projects, university research and dissertations. Rights-cleared for educational use, the resource also removes the time and costs associated with seeking reproduction rights or checking over students’ work to ensure they sought permission.
- Students now use the web as a prime source of information, although much of the imagery they find will be irrelevant or of such low resolution that it cannot be reproduced to the required quality. Organised by subject matter and fully searchable, Image Quest eliminates time wasted searching through irrelevant sites and resources. Free of advertising and from trustworthy sources, the resource contains images that are not freely available on the internet.
- The high-quality images are tagged with relevant keywords so users can quickly access a wide range of additional relevant imagery to support their work. Each photo or illustration also comes with complete metadata, including the source, the copyright holder, caption, and keywords, automatically inserting the proper citation information with each image used in a paper or project. Users can download, print and save images in a “Virtual Lightbox” and share and e-mail them in a multitude of formats.
- Ian Grant, Managing Director of Encyclopædia Britannica UK, comments: “What makes Image Quest unique is the way image collections from around the world have been brought together by Universal Images Group to create an essential repository of photos and illustrations entirely rights-cleared for education. Where in the past students and educators would need to research, request and even travel to specialist institutions to access resources, Image Quest brings them all together in an online portal available anytime, anywhere over the internet. The ability to use Image Quest alongside the trusted resources from Britannica means the teaching and learning possibilities are enormous.”
- Image Quest is published in association with Universal Images Group (www.UniversalImagesGroup.com).
- A free 30-day trial is available. Institutional pricing for Image Quest, dependent on size and type of institution, is available from Britannica. For further information, please visit the web site at www.britannica.co.uk.
Notes to editors:
- Image Quest providers include:
| • |
Action Plus |
• |
NativeStock Pictures |
| • |
Bridgeman Art Library |
• |
Natural History Museum |
| • |
Chicago History Museum |
• |
Nature Picture Library |
| • |
De Agostini Editore Picture Library |
• |
Oxford Scientific |
| • |
DK Images |
• |
Planet Observer |
| • |
Encyclopædia Britannica |
• |
Primal Pictures |
| • |
Getty Images |
• |
Royal Geographic Society |
| • |
The Granger Collection |
• |
Science Photo Library |
| • |
Lebrecht Music + Art |
• |
Superstock |
| • |
National Geographic Society |
• |
The Times Picture Archive - NI Syndication |
| • |
National Portrait Gallery |
• |
Universal Images Group |
- About Encyclopædia Britannica
Britannica is the oldest and most well-known English language encyclopedia still in production and is currently available in online, digital and print formats. Britannica contains hundreds of thousands of articles and useful facts, which has made it into a leading source of information and knowledge for children, teachers and parents, both in schools and at home.
- Britannica Online is the online version of Encyclopædia Britannica. Around 4,300 contributors and editors, chosen from all over the world for their high standing in their fields of expertise, provide articles, pictures and videos which are then fact-checked by Britannica editors for consistency of style and language level. Britannica Online provides a safe, secure, accurate and up-to-date reference resource that is fully indexed, linked and cross-referenced. For more information, please go to: www.britannica.com.
- Encyclopædia Britannica Online for Kids is the trusted online resource for young learners aged six years and above. Children can research subjects by key stage and topics, and access more content than any other English-language encyclopedia, in an advertising-free environment. The database features thousands of images, videos and statistics, as well as research guides, an up-to-date world atlas and animated timelines, a student dictionary and thesaurus, and learning activities for languages, arts, mathematics, science, and social sciences. For more information: www.kids.britannica.com.
- About Universal Images Group:
Universal Images Group is the distribution business unit for premium content of the Virtual Picture Desk founded by George Sinclair in 2002. UIG sources, edits and aggregates photographs, prints, lithographs, paintings, engravings, illustrations, footage, video clips and other multimedia content.
UIG Images are licensed for editorial, creative, education and information services markets through major distributors such as: Getty Images, Photolibrary, Alamy, Masterfile, Superstock and Amana and provides images to specialist agencies such as: Photo Researchers, Science Photo Library and Learning Pictures.
# # #
-
CONTACT:
Livewire Public Relations
Jenny Jackson or Louise Peto
+44 (0)20 8339 7440
jennifer.jackson@livewirepr.com
