Berg Publishers, the leading specialist academic and reference imprint owned by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, is delighted to announce a new partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to enable more than two thousand images from the internationally renowned Costume Institute’s collection to be made available through the Berg Fashion Library, a new online resource launching in late June 2010.
The Berg Fashion Library is an innovative new online portal that will enable users to locate images as well as reference and research materials on the subject of costume and dress. A core value of the Berg Fashion Library is to increase the accessibility of fashion objects held in disparate collections across the world through sophisticated search and browse. Berg’s classification system will make it easier for students, scholars and curators to see clothing and related objects that they otherwise might not know existed, and to link to relevant content providing historical and cultural context. Thumbnail images from the Met’s collection will be displayed within the Berg Fashion Library, and users will be able to click through to the Costume Institute’s website for further information.
Harold Koda, Curator-in-Charge of the Costume Institute, comments:
“We are delighted to announce this partnership with Berg, as it will make images from the Costume Institute available to new audiences throughout the world. The Berg Fashion Library should bring more students to our site and help curators who are searching for exhibition objects. We are looking forward to the launch and to participating in this exciting new project.”
Kathryn Earle, Managing Director of Berg Publishers, says:
“We could not be happier to be announcing this important relationship. It will enable students, researchers and curators throughout the world to learn more about and experience the dress objects featured in this glorious collection. The Met, even before the addition of the Brooklyn Museum’s impressive collection, has long been at the forefront of international fashion collections. Many of our users will never have the opportunity to see the Met’s holdings in person, but they can at least get a sense of the importance of the collection from their desktops, and learn more about the history and culture of the full range of featured dress from the Berg Fashion Library’s reference content.”
About the Berg Fashion Library
Launching in late June 2010, the Berg Fashion Library will be the first online portal to offer comprehensive coverage of dress and fashion around the world by providing access to interdisciplinary and integrated image, book and journal content.
Informed by prestigious academic and library advisors, the Berg Fashion Library will offer cross-searchable access to an expanding range of content collections (for example the new 10-volume Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion) and images from internationally-renowned collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum. All content will be underpinned by a specially created and highly detailed taxonomy to enhance search and browse.
The Berg Fashion Library will be available through Oxford University Press by annual subscription. For further information, please visit www.bergfashionlibrary.com.
