Unesco Photobank

Citation

Blum, J.M. (2002), "Unesco Photobank", Online Information Review, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 433-434. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2002.26.6.433.13

The Unesco Photobank is “a selection of Unesco’s collection and slides”. The physical photo collection was started in 1946, and a portion of it is now available online for the public to view. The current collection of over 10,000 images is constantly being updated as more images are digitised. The goal of this collection is to create a balance of coverage among these various topics, as well as for countries that are represented. It “does not aspire to be accurately representative of the regions and countries included nor to express any opinions … of the subjects involved”.

The search options can be found on the first page dedicated to the Photobank. Users are given various pull‐down menus with which to form a query. These menus include region, country, place, theme (communication, sports, etc.), subject (breeding, transport, etc.), year or photographer. These are adequate for most users’ needs, but a keyword text box is also included for more personalised research.

A completed search will return a list of hits that includes thumbnails of the images, the places where the photographs were taken, and keywords. Clicking on a link entitled “more information” will give researchers a larger scale image as well as additional details, such as the photographer and the year the photo was shot. Getting permission to use an image is easy. Users should simply click on the “Add to List” box and use the Back option in their browser to view other images. When finished, they should click on “View List”. Users will then be shown thumbnails of all the images they have chosen and be asked to click on the “Proceed to Order Form” button. Here they will need to fill out a form explaining the types of use they envisage as well as their name, address and organisation. If the use is commercial in nature, cost for use is then calculated.

It is important to remember that this portion of the site, the Photobank, is very small in comparison with the entire publishing aspect of Unesco. Many of the links on the pages are related to the site as a whole rather than the Photobank. There is no online help for this service, and the e‐mail address for assistance (photobank@unesco.com) is only given on the first page. The site’s major setback is that it loads very slowly; it could be very difficult to view with a traditional modem connection. However, the collection of photographs covers a wide variety of topics and represents many ethnicities. It is simple to search, and most of the images are in beautiful full colour, unless they were originally taken in black and white. I recommend this site to anyone looking for photographs in the areas of education, science, communication or cultural studies.

This review was first published in Reference Reviews Volume 16 Number 6 2002.