A slide library is a library that houses a collection of photographic slides, either as a part of a larger library or photo archive, or standing alone within a larger organization, such as an academic department of a college or university, a museum, or a corporation. Typically, a "slide library" contains slides depicting artwork, architecture, or cultural objects, and is typically used for the study, teaching, and documentation of art history, architectural history, and visual culture. Other academic disciplines, such as biology and other sciences, also maintain image collections akin to slide libraries. Corporations may also have image libraries to maintain and document their publications and history. Increasingly, these types of libraries are known as "Visual Resources Collections," as they may be responsible for all "visual" materials for the study of a subject and include still and moving images in a variety of physical and virtual formats. They may contain:
35mm slides
lantern slides
mounted study photographs
born digital images
35mm, 8mm film
Many educational institutions have changed the names of their slide libraries over the years, to a variety of titles like Visual Resources Center, Imaging & AV Center, Digital Collections Center, etc. The titles and duties of slide librarians have therefore expanded greatly. As keepers of these important historical images, visual resources librarians have continuously cataloged and inventoried slide collections, circulated them to faculty for teaching, and more recently, digitized slides and placed them online via content management systems.
History of visual resources collections
The first American lantern slide collections, developed by museums to reflect and augment their collections, got their start between 1860 and 1879: the American Natural History Museum, the New York State Military Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Winterthur Museum. American colleges and universities began their collections during the same period of time: DePauw University, Columbia University, Oberlin College, Princeton University, University of Rochester. Colleges and university collections were used primarily for classroom instruction.
The first illustrated architectural history course west of the Mississippi was John Galen Howard's Architecture 5A-F at the University of California, Berkeley in 1905. The six-semester course was required for all architecture students, and like other architectural history courses of its time, at MIT and Cornell at least, were multi-year in duration. Of course, the lecture was illustrated by lantern slides. In the U.S., lantern slides generally measured 3"x 4.25".
The 1950s was a period of transition from black and white lantern slides, which heretofore had often been hand colored, to color positive film. Lantern slides were shot directly onto color film, and the 35mm slide (2"x2" with an image of 24mm x 36mm) gained in popularity.
The heyday of the lantern slide lasted one hundred years, more or less, from 1860 to 1960. The reign of the 35mm slide, more or less, was about half as long, fifty years, 1955–2005.
Timeline: Development of visual resources (collections and profession) in the U.S.
1865. First lantern slide collections begin developing in the U.S. These 3.25" x 4.0" glass slides projected clearly with great detail. However, projectors required lime light which was dirty and dangerous
1887. First transparent, flexible nitrocellulose film base developed
1888. First perforated film stock developed
1889. Eastman combined nitrocellulose film stock, perforated edges, and dry-gelatino-bromide emulsion to create the first paperless film stock
1902. Court denies Eastman's exclusive patent, allowing any company to develop 35mm film
1905. UC Berkeley's Architecture Library acquires its first lantern slide, the tree of architecture, made from Banister Fletcher's book, A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method
1909. 35mm adopted as the international standard gauge by Motion Picture Patents Company, an Edison trust
1913. 35mm film format introduced into still photography
1925. Leica Camera introduced, using 35mm still film
1930. Safety film introduced (cellulose diacetate)
1934–1936. Kodachrome 35mm slide film introduced, but not widely adopted by colleges and universities. Film stock was either flammable or brittle
1949. Kodak replaces all nitrate-based films with its safety film, a cellulose-triacetate base
1952. All camera film is now triacetate based, paving the way for widespread adoption of 35mm film in both amateur and academic markets