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University of St Andrews Image Database. Dr Birgit Plietzsch [email protected] Visual Resource Association Conference Toronto, March 2009. Background. user requests from across the Faculty of Arts academic need for multiple implementations? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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University of St Andrews Image Database
Dr Birgit Plietzsch
Visual Resource Association Conference
Toronto, March 2009
Background
• user requests from across the Faculty of Arts
• academic need for multiple implementations?
• future support needs of a number of similar technical implementations?
University of St Andrews, IT Services
Interests
University of St Andrews, IT Services
The University
IT Services Academics
• Accessibility legislation• Management of electronic data• Use of institutional authentication
• technical expertise of academics• multiple standards and database schemas• IT Helpdesk approached re content development problems• authentication mechanisms• future support needs of a number of similar technical solutions
• Ownership• my images• my database
• Restrictions on sharing content
• within the same school?• within the University?• with the rest of the world?
Scenario 1: CDs / DVDs
• Cheap to produce• No record keeping of existing
images• Finding right image can be time
consuming• Collaboration:
– sharing storage media
– easy to lose part of the image collection
• No integration with other image collections
University of St Andrews, IT Services
Scenario 2: Databases
• Differences in:– the use of software– database structures– metadata and controlled vocabularies
• no integration of various image collections
• support and maintenance dependent on academic staff who may leave the University
University of St Andrews, IT Services
Scenario 3: A central database
• Costs arise once (development, s/w, h/w)
• Central database:– easier to support
– encourages collaboration
– consistent record keeping
• ITS deal with technical aspects• Schools deal with content
University of St Andrews, IT Services
Existing software v project needs• Repository software• MDID• Luna Insight• among others
University of St Andrews, IT Services
• technologies required• implementation of accepted standards• collection creation• use of institutional authentication mechanism• recurrent Helpdesk issues
Recommended standards• VRA Core 4.0 & CCO• Challenges:
– vagueness and complexity
– standards not written alongside one another
– Complexity: beyond most academics who want to set up an image collection
– Subject-specific image description
– Controlled vocabularies:
• Use of controlled vocabularies
• Consistent use across different collections
– Ambiguities in the VRA standard (e.g. the handling of dates)
University of St Andrews, IT Services
<dateSet> <display> c. 1927 </display> <date type="creation">
<earliestDate>1922</earliestDate> <latestDate>1932</latestDate>
</date> </dateSet>
<dateSet> <display> c. 1927 </date> <date type="creation">
<earliestDate circa="1">1922</earliestDate> <latestDate circa="1">1932</latestDate>
</date> </dateSet>
<dateSet><display> c. 1927 </date> <date type="creation">
<earliestDate circa="1>1927</earliestDate><latestDate circa="1">1927</latestDate>
</date> <notes>Date is +/- 5 years </notes>
</dateSet>
Solutions• Not all issues have been resolved on the technical level.
– controlled vocabularies
• templating system to address some of the complexity, e.g:– AGENT:
• photograph: photographer• painting: painter• architecture: architect• Etc
• use of high-resolution images to address content development issues
University of St Andrews, IT Services
Image Database
http://imagedatabase.st-andrews.ac.uk
University of St Andrews, IT Services
Public welcome screen
A Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project image collection
A Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project image collection
A Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project image collection
A Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project image collection
A Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project image collection
Collection-specific data input template
Lightbox
Slideshow
Slideshow
Thanks• Technical implementation & maintenance:
– Sean Dooley– Swithun Crowe
• Advice: – Mick Eadie (Visual Arts Data Service)– colleagues in ITS, academic Schools, University Library– vra-l
• Permission to demonstrate project:– Prof. Richard Fawcett (School of Art History), A Corpus of Scottish
Medieval Parish Churches Project: http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/corpusofscottishchurches
… among others
University of St Andrews, IT Services
University of St Andrews Image Database
Dr Birgit Plietzsch
Visual Resource Association Conference
Toronto, March 2009
