This paper frames some of the current issues surrounding the storage, transmission, and use of digital images, specifically those which are images of objects or non-textural images. The paper calls for the creation of a National Image Alliance to deal with these issues. Current technology is on the brink of making digital images easily available via the internet or its successor. Desktop equipment is readily available to display images, and the necessary bandwidth will likely be available for the widespread transmission of images. Tools such as Mosaic make images integral parts of electronic publication and more accessible to users.
Multimedia promises to advance the use of images even more broadly.
Traditional image collections in colleges and universities reside in the archives, and the departments of architecture, art and art history. Also, numerous faculty have private image collections on a wide range of topics from history to biology which they use in their teaching or research. These collections are very labor intensive to manage and use, and they are often inaccessible to a broad base of users. Students often have difficulty accessing images outside the classroom for review. New attention given to teaching and learning via technology will likely heighten the use of images in the teaching and learning process.