University of St Andrews Image Database
description
Transcript of University of St Andrews Image Database
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