Festive greetings from the Artifact Team.
Artifact www.artifact.ac.uk is a new service for the Arts and Creative Industries and is part of
the Resource Discovery Network www.rdn.ac.uk
Artifact provides free searchable access to the best of the web in the following subjects:
Architecture, Art, Communications & Media, Culture, Design, Fashion & Beauty, Performing Arts and a
range of general subjects such as business advice, events & exhibitions, funding, training &
employment opportunities and much more.
In keeping with the festive season we'd like to share some recently catalogued sites within
Artifact:
the Snowflake photography site based on the work of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, at:
http://www.artifact.ac.uk/displayoai.php?id=3812
the International Snow Sculpture Championships at:
http://www.artifact.ac.uk/displayoai.php?id=3813
a display of Victorian Christmas cards can be found at:
http://www.artifact.ac.uk/displayoai.php?id=3814
or even a Christmas Carols site at:
http://www.artifact.ac.uk/displayoai.php?id=3811
and for those with a passion for the pantomime tradition:
http://www.artifact.ac.uk/displayoai.php?id=776
Read on if you'd like to know more about Artifact...
A general update on the Artifact service
Artifact launched officially on Monday 10th November 2003. Since then much development work has
gone into making the service just what the arts and creative industries community wants, based on
feedback we've received.
Some statistics...
Since the soft launch of Artifact in August 2003, usage of the site has steadily increased from
just under 2000 unique visitors in July, to 5747 in September to a peak of 8516 unique visitors
following the public launch in November. At present the total number of live records in the
Artifact
catalogue is 2166, a figure which increases on a daily basis.
Speaking at the launch of Artifact in London, guest speaker Loyd Grossman said "There are many
wonderful things to be found through Artifact" describing the service as "Tremendously useful" and
one which he had already bookmarked! So if you haven't already, why not bookmark Artifact too.
Early in 2004 Artifact will complete the addition of the records from the ADAM (Art, Design,
Architecture & Media) gateway http://adam.ac.uk
We will also be developing additional services with the introduction of a regular Featured Events
page, and we'll also be undertaking a further survey with the Artifact Virtual Consultative Group
(VCG). If you would like become a member of this virtual group, which is made up of a cross-section
of the whole of the Artifact community providing feedback and ideas on specific service development
ideas via email, please email the Artifact Team at [log in to unmask]
The search directory will also be refined with the addition of faster navigation within search
results helping you to locate the required resource instantly.
Many of these refinements and additions are based on the feedback we've received from you so thank
you to everyone who has taken the time to send feedback and site suggestions to us. This helps to
ensured that Artifact is being built for the community by the community, please keep your ideas and
feedback coming!
Feedback via our online feedback form at:
http://www.artifact.ac.uk/feedback.php
Or Suggest a resource via our online suggestion form at: http://www.artifact.ac.uk/suggest.php
Wishing you all a very peaceful and restful Christmas and very best wishes for 2004.
The Artifact Team
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