a website review of The Quilt Index – quiltindex.org
The Quilt Index is a growing research and reference tool designed to provide unprecedented access to information and images about quilts held in private and public hands.
It is a joint project of The Alliance for American Quilts and several several entities of Michigan State University. It has received major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and several other important research services.
Therefore you can imagine that when this comprehensive online resource is more fully developed, it will likely be the mother of all quilt resources.
The site is designed with “user simplicity” as a primary goal. The depth of the content value is just as impressive. Eventually this website will be the central resource incorporating a wide variety of sources and information on quilts, quiltmakers and quiltmaking.
As an example of the simplicity and depth of the entries, this screen snapshot of “Browse by Category” shows part of the layout for browsing the collection depending on search criteria.
This next screen snapshot shows the way The Quilt Index website provides specific quilt history and information already compiled in various documentation projects in the US and internationally for privately held quilts. The documented quilts may also be in museums, libraries.
The Quilt Index website will be adding more useful tools in the future. It will always be a work in progress. Some of the internal hyperlinks were not accessible. For example, the very clear but non functioning list of Featured Contributors shown in the right sidebar was not operating, as of early January, 2010. Other menu items will obviously be updated, such as Essays, Galleries, Lesson Plans, and Continuing Efforts.
Future goals of the site will include finding aids developed to assist researchers with locating hard-to-find quilt-related primary and secondary materials that are held in public collections. Another goal will be developing bibliographies of secondary materials relevant to quilt study.
Materials licensed to the Quilt Index may only be reused in the context of the Quilt Index, by attribution and only for non-commercial, educational purposes. (See copyright advice for Web use.)
This is a well designed site, developed with future users and updates in mind. The color scheme and general layout are pleasing. Overall, this website invites one to stay awhile and enjoy the obvious efforts made to engage the viewer and to encourage many repeat visits.
