This pioneering two-year project explored the legal, technical, and practical issues involved in using digital images of museum collections for educational purposes. The report includes essays by project participants for the fourteen museums and universities that participated in this project, and recommends terms and conditions for distributing digital museum images via the Internet and university campus networks.

• Foreword, Eleanor Fink
• Preface, Kathleen McDonnell
• Editor’s Note and Acknowledgments, Christie Stephenson and Patricia McClung
• Part I: Project Background and History
  • The Evolution of the MESL Project, Christie Stephenson
• Part II: Legal and Administrative Issues
  • Project Background—Framing the Issues, Christie Stephenson
  • Establishing the Terms and Conditions for Educational Institutional Licensing of Museum Images: A Summary of Issues and Priorities, Mary Levering
  • Establishing the Terms an Conditions for Educational Institutional Licensing of Museum Images: A Framework for Museums and Universities, Mary Levering and Melissa Smith Levine
• Part III: Content Selection
  • Introduction
  • Content Selection in the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project, Andrea Notman
• Part IV: Technical Issues
  • Introduction
  • The MESL Data Dictionary and the Data Export Process, Robin Dowden
  • Digital Image Production Issues, Christie Stephenson
  • The MESL Distribution Process, Christie Stephenson and Clifford Lynch
  • MES Implementation at the Universities, Howard Besser
• Part V: Use and Impact
  • Introduction
  • MESL Impact: Museum Perspective, Patricia McClung
  • MESL Impact: University Perspective, Patricia McClung
  • Findings of the Instructor/Student Survey, Beth Sandore
  • Findings of the MESL Casual User Survey, Geraldine Gay, Robert Rieger, and Amanda Sturgill
• Part VI: Economic Issues
  • Introduction
  • The Costs of Digital Image Distribution: Theory, Methods, and Preliminary Results of the Mellon Study, Robert Yamashita
• Part VII: Conclusion
  • Looking Ahead, Christie Stephenson and Patricia McClung
• Part VIII: Appendices
  • Appendix A: Goals and Objectives
  • Appendix B: Cooperative Agreement
  • Appendix C: Data Dictionary
  • Appendix D: Chart of MESL Field Usage
  • Appendix E: Instructor/Student Surveys
  • Appendix F: Casual User Survey
• About the Contributors
• Project Team Members
• Credits
• Selected Bibliography

Christie Stephenson is Librarian for Digital Collections at the New York University Libraries.

Patricia McClung is a consultant to libraries and museums on digital initiatives and has served as manager of the MESL project since 1995.