The Department of the History of Art has been obliged to discontinue its slide and photograph distribution projects. On December 31st, 2006, we stopped selling slide sets and photographs to universities and institutions. This change covers all our previous distribution projects, including those for the American Council for Southern Asian Art, the University of Michigan Slide Distribution, and the Asian Art Photograph Distribution.

There were a number of reasons for this development. Because of the fact that digital images are now widely being used in place of slides for teaching, there has been steep drop off in demand for slides and photographs. Secondly, we have found that companies dedicated to the dissemination of digital images have taken over the distribution of a number of collections of images in the areas formerly served by our distribution projects. Finally, in the light of the rapidly declining demand for slide sets, we find that we are no longer in a position where we can finance the staff positions needed to maintain these projects on an adequate basis.

The Department of the History of Art has a long history documenting original sites and collections and distributing this information worldwide, an agenda championed by Professor Walter Spink and pursued for decades by our distribution projects. It is thus with great regret that we must announce that we are discontinuing these projects. We feel certain, however, that the new modes of distribution that have sprung up in the wake of the conversion to digital images will serve the needs of the communities previously served by our distribution projects. We shall continue supplying individual images needed for research and publication from our archives of images. Requests should be directed to the Visual Resources Collection at The Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, 519 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1357, via fax at 734-647-4121 or e-mail to hamedia@umich.edu.