Digital Images for the Information Professional.: Melissa M. Terras.
René van Horik · Literary and Linguistic Computing · 2009
Information technology changes so fast that books on this subject tend to be outdated before they are published. This is certainly not the case with Melissa Terras’ Digital Images for the Information Professional. A new digital image file format might arrive in the future, improved image capture and display technology might enter the scene, as well as new ways of using digital images but the information in the book will still be relevant, applicable, and actual in the coming years. This is because the book provides an in-depth and complete coverage of the historical and contextual framework of the state of affairs concerning digital images. The victory of the digital camera over the analogue camera and the rise of the omnipresent Web 2.0 information space is the provisional destination of this development process. The author very capably explains and illustrates issues such as colour management, image compression algorithms, and image benchmark methods without using technical jargon and technical formulas. This makes the book very accessible for a wide audience. The book is addressed to the information professional, who Terras defines as an individual working in a library, archive, museum or in a cultural heritage or information environment, and whose aim it is to maintain—and often improve—access to the ever growing amount of information generated from within the culture and heritage industry, the media, and increasingly, by the general public. This book aims to provide this information professional with the necessary tools for a good understanding of many prime issues surrounding digital images.