This past Winter 2019/20 the Digital Imaging Unit and Centre for Research Collections Museums teams hosted two student interns to support the development of the new Digital Wall, which opened in the University of Edinburgh’s main Library in September 2019. The students, Dario Lucarini (Napier University) and Tom Hutton (Edinburgh College of Art), were tasked with
Guest post by Meg Dolan (MScR Collections and Curating Practices, 2020) and Keith Bossert (MSc History of the Book, 2020)
This summer we had the opportunity to intern with the Digital Imaging Unit, working under Photographer, Juliette Lichman, and DIU Manager, Carla Arton. Due to COVID-19 we worked remotely to expand and update the DIU’s web presence on the University’s Main Library page, a service development project related to their larger Digitisation as a Service Strategy.
The project was divided into 5 phases:
Phase 1: Pre-Planning and User Experience Research & Analysis
In Phase 1, we viewed the websites of similar digitisation departments across other academic and research institutions. This allowed us to
The Digital Imaging Unit hosts the digitised content it has produced on a site called Image Collections. This site is available for searching, sharing, exporting, and reusing publically available and copyrighted images from the Library and University Collections. Many images have been used for research, teaching, publications and creating new content.
Need some images? Here are some tips for searching Image Collections.
The home page has a tiled look that will allow for you to jump straight into a collection of images (grouped by theme) to browse or to search across all collections using the search box at the top. If you click on a collection tile, it will take you to a collection overview page describing what you will find within that collection. Some collection pages have additional iiif manifest links so you can view an entire book as if reading through it, instead of looking at each page as an individual page. If you decide to browse that collection it will take you to a gallery style view of all the images in that collection. You can increase the number of images that appear at a time and page through to browse the entire collection. You can also use the navigation pane on the left side of the screen to filter based on specific characteristics, such as what, where, who and when.
If you are looking for a specific search term, such as ‘student’, make sure to search across All Collections. Hover over the Collections tab on the top left of the page until
I was delighted to be able to participate in the 4th International Staff Week at the Biblioteki Politechniki Gdańskiej recently. I work as the Senior Photographer for Edinburgh University’s Library and University Collections, so when I saw that the programme included a visit to the Pomeranian Digital Library it looked like a great opportunity. Additionally, this was the home institution of one of the delegates on our own Knowledge Exchange Week in 2018, allowing further development of previous Erasmus links.
The Aberdeen Breviary is a highly significant book for a number of reasons. Initiated by King James IV and compiled by Bishop William Elphinstone, it is Scotland’s first printed book, published in Edinburgh in 1510. It also represents the most in depth collection of information on the lives and stories of Scottish Saints. Our copy is one of five known remaining original copies making it a key addition to our Iconics Collection.
I don’t know if I have ever been more excited about a digitisation project going live: the Edinburgh University’s 1795 copy of the Mahābhārata is now available online. This beautiful scroll is one of the longest poems ever written, containing a staggering 200,000 verses spread along 72 meters of richly decorated silk backed paper. As one of the Iconic items in our Collection it was marked as a digitisation priority, so when a customer requested the 78 miniatures back in April 2017 it seemed like a good opportunity to digitise it in its entirety. There was just one problem: it was set to go on display in the ‘Highlands to Hindustan’ exhibition, which opened at the Library in July. This left us with only a narrow window of opportunity for the first stages of the project: conservation and photography.
Since November last year, I have been volunteering on the Luna Project in the Digital Imaging Unit. Throughout the project I have been working with the University of Edinburgh’s Shakespeare Collection. As a fan of Shakespeare’s work, I was delighted to have the opportunity to work closely with this collection which contains a variety of different classic Shakespeare plays such as; Romeo and Juliet, Henry VI, Midsommer Night’s Dreame and my personal favourite, the Taming of The Shrew.
There’s no doubt that in our digital age, social media and online presence is crucial to engaging with your customers, audiences or users. Due to the growing demand of higher quality images on these platforms, several of us in the DIU have recently given talks about achieving the best image quality using low-tech solutions. The great thing about phones and tablets is that we’re able to share content to social media from anywhere, creating a sense of immediacy and dynamism. Being able to take great photos and videos with just our phones can be challenging, but knowing the best settings and set-up can help to create great images that will make your posts more engaging.
Last week the i2S CopiBook V-Shape arrived in the Digital Imaging Unit where it was installed and demoed by Pascale Thuilliez from i2S. This high-quality bookscanner was bought with the view to being used for the next phase of the Session Papers Project (read my previous blog here for more information on the project itself).
Team DIU (well, half of it!) have been visiting the Rijksmuseum again for the biennial conference on 2 and 3D photography. 2 full days of speakers followed by another workshop day left us with lots to think about. This year’s conference built on the last, Robert Erdmann released the open source code for his amazing curtain viewer which can be tried out in the Bosh Project here http://boschproject.org/#/ . Malcolm is going to delve deeper in to Erdmann’s latest developments below. Otherwise 3D technology seems to be taking root, with debate over the level of quality and detail needed, and advances such as ‘videogrammetry’ and ‘unstructured light field renderings’ (see below) entering the fray.