The Knowlton School of Architecture recently opened a massive online digital library to Ohio State and the public.

“The launching of the Knowlton School of Architecture digital library adds another valuable resource to support our excellent courses,” said Robert Livesey, director of the school. “Students, faculty and practitioners from around the world will be able to access architecture, landscape architecture and city and regional planning images, further reinforcing the KSA’s reputation as a center of design and planning.”

The library is available to OSU faculty, staff and students with portions also available to the general public. It contains more than 4,200 images from prehistoric cave paintings to computer-generated designs.

“The point of the database that I find most exciting is that while the OSU community does have a broader range of tools to use in the database, the KSA digital library is available to anyone with Internet access,” said Jane Hughes, spokeswoman for the school.

The library is a good resource for anyone with an interest in architecture, Hughes said.

“The digital library is also a great place to visit for those just curious about architects and architecture, or for those who want to learn a little more about a particular individual or style of architecture,” she said.

The KSA digital library was developed through a collaboration of Lorrie McAllister, the KSA visual resources curator, the Web Media Collective and the members of the Visual Resources Library Committee.

“The origin of the library is based on a TELR grant that Jane Murphy – an OSU architecture faculty member – received in 2000,” McAllister said. “I was hired in 2001 and we began to assess the needs of the school and compare these to products on the market as well as to ‘homegrown’ systems created by other universities.”

The search led them to the Web Media Collective on the OSU campus. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates nominated the collective for the 2003 Computerworld Honors Program. The collective was a perfect choice for use with the library, McAllister said.

“Together we built a custom database management system that is compatible with other groups on campus so that, when funding is secured, we can introduce cross-collection searching,” she said.

The digital library adds new images almost daily. Many architecture and non-architecture students and faculty have found the museum to be an enthralling reference tool.

“The KSA online visual resources library is invaluable both to my lecture presentations and to students doing research,” said Jane Amidon, assistant professor of landscape architecture. “The amassed images cover a breadth of types and time periods and typically offer a variety of views and drawings of the better known works.”

The library has been designed with ease of use in mind, which saves research time, Amidon said.

“It is a huge time saver and if used as much as it should be by students, would really enhance their exposure to important as well as lesser known projects,” she said.

The digital library can be accessed through the web at wmc.ohio-state.edu/ksa.