IN DEPTH ‘‘
Claire Knowles is Associate Director: Research and Digital Futures at University of Leeds Libraries, and co- chair of Research Libraries UK’s Shift Working Group.
Tom Shaw is Deputy Director, Libraries and Col- lections at King’s College London, and co-chair of Research Libraries UK’s Shift Working Group
Although a fair amount of technical skill and infrastructure is required to create large IIIF collections, large numbers of IIIF collections are available for all to view and use online.
IIIF – unlocking digital image collections
One of the greatest privileges of working in the GLAM sector is having the opportunity to work with beautiful, historic, and unique collections. These have traditionally been restricted to only those allowed access and who could travel to where such collections are held. The creation of digital images and the ability to host these openly has of course vastly democratised access. But what has this really achieved, beyond the ability to look at beautiful images, and for researchers to at least see a version of them with- out going in person to view the original?
SINCE its initial development in 2011, a set of technical standards known as IIIF has qui- etly revolutionised digital image collections. IIIF goes far beyond just allowing people to view digital images online, not only pro- viding a rich and sophisticated experience, but unlocking new knowledge contained in the artefacts represented by the images and facilitating new research on them. It is a powerful example of the synthesis of digital and physical, whereby digital technology is enhancing our knowledge of and engagement with physical print materials and artefacts. So, what is IIIF exactly? IIIF or ‘triple-eye-eff’ is the International Image Interoperability Frame- work, although it has now been extended to support audio and video files, with 3D image capability in development. It is a standard for the sharing of digital content; billions of digital files are shared via IIIF, unlocking them for our users and ourselves. IIIF was originally developed by a few European and US university libraries who wanted to create a way of digitally reuniting manuscripts that had been distributed across the globe. It continues to have an open source, grassroots and community ethos, with
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the aim of enabling high resolution images to be made openly available and re-usable by all. IIIF-enabled images allow you to zoom in and see brush or pen strokes; compare items across the world on your screen; combine manuscripts whose leaves have been distributed between collections on different continents. IIIF delivers the ability to in- teract with and zoom into images in minute detail – creating a rich and engaging experience, as close as possible to the real thing – unlocking minute detail not readily visible to the naked eye. Although a fair amount of technical skill and infrastructure is required to create large IIIF collec- tions, large numbers of IIIF collections are available for all to view and use online. The implementation of IIIF by the Internet Archive and no/low-code options enable more GLAM organisations to adopt IIIF. IIIF has open access and open source at its heart, and a few key examples include: The University of Newcastle’s online Gertrude Bell Archive contains thousands of IIIF images of correspondence, diaries, and photographs. The archive of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) covers complex and crucial periods of geopolitical history, such as the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the First World War,
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