Today, Fabricatorz broke the news regarding The Open Clip Art Library’s latest update: Version 2.9. This first 2011 Release for the site sees an increase in Community involvement, as well as many key usability enhancements, like a comments feed authored by Chovynz:

Registered users can now log into OCAL, select their ‘My Cliparts’ section, scroll to the bottom of the page and see a list of the most recent comments made on their uploaded works!

Check out the Fabricatorz blog post for full details on the new-and-improved OCAL!

This Open Clip Art Library Release Announcement is sponsored by Worldlabel.com, a multifunctional label manufacturer.

The Open Clip Art Library has seen impressive growth in 2010. Month after month, artist registrations trend higher, rich new features make their way into the interface, and the Library’s collection adds a steady stream of new and remixed clip art (now at over 35,000 unique images). October’s release is as feature-packed and content-heavy as any that have come before it, and the Librarians are proudly presenting Open Clip Art Library 2.6, backing up a brand new version of it’s web platform, Aiki Framework 0.5.

Among the many enhancements Open Clip Art Library has received through this Release, cgbug’s enhancements to user profiles are instantly gratifying. Avatars make their triumphant return, as logged in users can now associate their Community alias with their most inspired creation that has been uploaded to OCAL! Along with avatars, the “Edit Profile” section (found within each logged in user’s “Profile” tab) allows artists to adjust personal information like: email, artist name, and homepage.

The User Profile Management is a great example of Community members beginning to take an active role in Open Clip Art Library’s development. Librarians continue to advocate Community involvement with a new Community Help section (appearing on the sidebar of many pages within the site) in which the 10 most requested features on OCAL’s Launchpad appear.

Alongside these excellent new elements, a brand new Halloween-themed Clip Art Package is out! This ghoul-tastic concoction celebrates the Holiday with 158 brand new themed creations from members of our Open Clip Art Library Community (including the graphic above, by netalloy). The images are available on a per-image basis, as well as in a single compressed file.

For more on OCAL’s latest as well as details about Aiki Framework, please visit the Official Release Announcement.

This Open Clip Art Library Release Announcement is sponsored by Worldlabel.com, a multifunctional label manufacturer.

It’s a new calendar month, and that means it’s once again time for The Open Clip Art Library to continue it’s mission of regular upgrades. September 2010 sees the Release of The Open Clip Art Library 2.5. This feature-rich upgrade continues along the path of it’s predecessors, but the latest key design implementations set this release apart.

The most up-front addition to the OCAL experience is also the most powerful of the 2.5 feature set. An Activities Box has been placed front-and-center for all site visitors to make use of. This new section is a key element to increased Community contributions, as users will find up-to-date links relating to the most recent goings on in The Open Clip Art Library domain. In this way, the Activities Section serves as a platform for Community projects and Contests to grow and prosper like never before!

In the weeks since it’s implementation, the statistics, alone, provide an exhibit A of sorts. Site registration is up 1,100 over the month prior, while last month also saw over 1,100 new image uploads (bringing the total to an unbelievable 34,160 – as of this writing).

One in every ten new clip art uploads went into this month’s coinciding clip art package, making this Fall 2010 Collection the most successful and content-heavy Package to date! All 120+ Community-created images can be downloaded in a single Zip. Users are also free to browse each themed collection, via their individual pages. Looking ahead, October will see the next Holiday Release, as Halloween 2010 takes over The Library. To be included in the package, artists will have until October 3 2010 to upload related work and tag it appropriately (using the key term halloween2010).

Keeping pace with OCAL, Bassel Safadi’s Aiki Framework updates to Version 0.4! This latest release includes features-a-plenty and several key bug fixes involving the SQL in the admin panel. The latest stable build can be acquired via the project official press release.

This Open Clip Art Library Release Announcement is sponsored by Worldlabel.com, a multifunctional label manufacturer.

Efforts to ramp up Community Involvement have become a driving force in the development of The Open Clip Art Library. Recent updates to the platform have begun implementing key features to the already robust 2.0 environment.

Most recently, a themed clip art package has begun it’s release, alongside each monthly iteration of OCAL. Past collections have included Seasonally appropriate themes including Spring 2010, Summer 2010, and Sports 2010.

Work for next month’s Open Clip Art Library Release is already underway, and the Librarians are once again asking for new additions to an already massive collection (currently tipping the scales at over 33,600). This latest theme, Fall 2010, is building towards an upcoming Holiday Release. As such, the Community is asked to do double-duty and begin uploading their original and remixed clip arts that are related to the Fall Season, as well as the Halloween Holiday, tagging each with their appropriate key words (“fall2010″ or “halloween2010″ respectively).

Submissions for the Fall 2010 Clip Art Package will be accepted through the month of August, while Halloween themed work will continue building through September. Any contributing artists should take note of the new Activities section that displays, front and center, on Open Clip Art Library’s home page. The links contained here will display the most recent and active contests or events taking place within the Community.

The Librarians look forward to the upcoming Fall 2010 Package and would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of the exciting new activity at The Open Clip Art Library!

This Open Clip Art Library Package Announcement is sponsored by Worldlabel.com, a multifunctional label manufacturer.

The Open Clip Art Library has spent much of 2010 actively pursuing higher ground and greater methods of user contribution, beginning with the March Release of Version 2.0. Since that landmark release, the OCAL team has been on a regular iteration schedule, geared toward simplifying the user experience and fixing bugs.

More recent openclipart.org releases have begun adding incentives for content creation, in the form of themed package releases. To date, said releases have resulted in a wide array of content that forms a spectrum of seasonal work.

For the next release, scheduled on August 2nd, the Librarians are changing things up a bit, by calling for Sports-themed content from the Community. These new works will be included in the coming release and featured, as the latest downloadable package. Artists wishing to step up to the plate and contribute their original works are encouraged to register (if not already a member) and upload the SVG(s), tagging them with the keyword “sports2010“. Deadline for user submissions is Sunday, August 1st.

This Open Clip Art Library Package Announcement is sponsored by Worldlabel.com, a multifunctional label manufacturer.

The Open Clip Art Library enjoys yet another of it’s scheduled monthly updates, with revision 2.3. With over 32,000 vector graphics currently calling it home, OCAL has grown into one of the largest and most prevalent sources for freely available graphics on the web. Version 2.3 aims to begin building on this solid foundation, by increasing user interaction and content submissions.

The Spring 2010 Clip Art Package brought together a diverse group of artists and pointed them in a similar thematic direction. Over 11,900 individual downloads have proven the themed package format an effective way of presenting similarly-grouped work to the Community. As in the June Release, Open Clip Art 2.3 brings along with it, a compact, user-generated, themed package of clipart.

Familiar ground is tread, in the latest Themed Package Release, as Community artists, like laobc, rg1024, and pianoBrad have focused their attentions on the Summer Season. Summer2010 is packed with useful scenery elements, like rg1024′s beach ball (below),

along with the abstract, seasonal imagery of laobc’s “Sunshine in the Country” (the header for this article).

Any wishing to utilize this smoldering collection can do so individually (by searching for the key term or tag “summer2010″) or by downloading the entire package.

Also continuing this month is a logo design contest, initiated by the organizers of the Free Culture Research Conference. Artists still planning on submitting an entry should mark this Friday (July 9th) as the deadline for that submission. Three more judges, Jonathan Zittrain, Leonhard Dobusch, and Michelle Thorne, have been added to the esteemed panel that will judge and announce the winner on July 11.

For more information on all things related to this Summer 2010 Release, have a look at the official press release.

This Open Clip Art Library Release Announcement is sponsored by Worldlabel.com, a multifunctional label manufacturer.

The “Free Culture” Movement, instantiated in a 2004 publication by Creative Commons founding member Lawrence Lessig, is a reaction to content ownership in a digital age. Because The Open Clip Art Library is, at it’s core, a platform to freely share and collaborate created content, it will be forever intertwined with the Movement.

The Free Culture Research Conference was born of a need from academics, in various disciplines, to analyze and discuss the implications of the Free Culture Movement.

The FCRC Organizers are seeking to establish an identity for these annual Conferences, and they are asking for the help of the Open Clip Art Community!

From now, until the submission deadline of 11:59p on July 9th, The Open Clip Art Library will be accepting user-created and remixed entries, as a part of the Free Culture Research Conference Logo Design Contest.

Robert Martinez, the designer of The Open Clip Art Library’s awesome 2.0 logo, has generously offered up a unique design of his own (pictured above), that can serve as a starting point or a remix for any looking for inspiration, while designing for this contest!

The winning design will be announced on July 11th (Sunday). For additional details and more-specific examples, please have a look at the Open Clip Art Announcement Page, as well as the press release.

Developers at The Open Clip Art Library have been diligently implementing updates to the latest 2.1 Release of the site. Contributions and discussion about OCAL’s next steps have been progressing rapidly through platforms like bug reporting and the official mailing list. As preparations for the next iteration begin, the Librarians would like to announce the addition of a new element to upcoming and future releases, in the form of a coinciding themed package release!

The package will consist of images created by artists and developers of The Open Clip Art Library. Each collection of work will be centered around aspects of life relating to the current month or season of the year.

For this initial release, new submissions relating to the Spring Season will be included. In order to produce a stunning collection of vector images, users are encouraged to upload appropriately themed work to the site in the coming weeks.

Librarians at the Open Clip Art Library have set a goal of May 27th for the release of the Spring-themed clip art package, in honor of the 2010 Libre Graphics Meeting, in Brussels.

The Librarians hope to further encourage user contributions and collaborations with this exciting new aspect to The Open Clip Art Rlease Schedule. Everyone wishing to contribute can do so by registering, joining the mailing list, and uploading artwork!

The Open Clip Art Library grew from a project between Jon Phillips (of Fabricatorz) and Bryce Harrington, in early 2004. From humble beginnings, it has evolved into a massive collection of over 24,000 scalable vector images, all created by 1200+ artists from around the world.

The Open Clip Art Library is an increasingly useful and powerful platform, through which, all work uploaded to the site is dedicated to the public through Creative Commons’ “Public Domain Dedicated”. Anyone can download and use the entire SVG library for any purpose, including both free and commercial works!

OCAL now boasts an easily navigable collection, made possible by new thumbnail previews. It has now become much easier to search and download clip art that suits any situation. The new site layout includes an updated theme, from Andy Fitzsimon, that emphasizes user interaction by placing more importance on the portal to upload created work, as well as displaying selections from the ever-growing collection.

Behind the scenes, members of Fabricatorz, including, among others, Bassel Safadi, Michi, Ronaldo Barbachano, and Brad Phillips, have helped push The Open Clip Art Library onto the Aiki Framework. This new PHP + MYSQL platform allows programmers to easily create and work with content management systems from the web.

Please help support the new Open Clip Art site launch by registering (if you haven’t already) and uploading artwork of your own!.

Read the entire Announcement 2.0 here and at the Fabricatorz post.