The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) 2017 Conference in The Vatican is intended for a wide range of participants and interested parties, including digital image repository managers, content curators, software developers, scholars, and administrators at libraries, museums, cultural heritage institutions, software firms, and other organizations working with digital images and audio/visual materials. The conference will consist of two events with separate registration:
IIIF Conference, 7-9 June (3 days of plenary and parallel sessions). The pre-conference Mirador Viewer and Universal Viewer group meetings will take place on Monday, June 5, prior to the Showcase event and conference.
A critical aspect of shared data is using an easily accessible interface that is interoperable across a wide range of heritage institutions. One area of cultural heritage is that of heritage science, where data is generated about the materiality of heritage materials, whether documents, books, or objects. Linking this data back to a visual rendering of the heritage material begins a process of linked data and integration between science and humanities. Using the IIIF framework, the shared canvas data model can be expanded for integrating these linked scientific analyses to a digital surrogate of a cultural heritage object. There are challenges with this approach for multi and hyper-spectral imaging data due to the additional required layers of metadata in the spectral, spatial and temporal modes, which need to be consistent, and persistent, across sets of canvases. Using hyperspectral imaging, researchers provide new data layers by capturing images of documents in distinct wavebands of the visible and non-visible spectrum. Mapping on the layers of spectral images also allows integration of data from other non-invasive analytical techniques to map objects analytically. We use the term “scriptospatial” to refer to a global information system approach for documents, creating an interactive interface for scholars and scientists to engage with object data. Viewing digital cultural materials in multiple dimensions applies an archaeological approach, uncovering and interconnecting information strata of unique documents. Utilizing an object-oriented approach in conjunction with the data layer allows mapping of spatial and temporal data with increasing complexity for direct sharing and visualization of data. This scriptospatial concept enhances the ability to support cross-disciplinary research collaborations and analyses. These relationships support valuable and innovative creative approaches to data integration, while strengthening effective art and scientific collaborations. Scriptospatial mapping of data enables direct sharing and visualization of data to support analysis, with the capture of standardized instrumentation parameters and object metadata. The types of data captured and generated include characterization of pigments and inks on the object, retrieval of lost and obscured text, and illumination of creation methods. Exploiting Linked Data technologies, this information can be embedded and layered within IIIF-based re-presentations of cultural objects, making it readily available, as annotations, via IIIF APIs. The authors have been working to link captured data from a range of historic materials in order to provide web-accessible access to information from fragile historic documents, including the 1507 Waldseemüller World Map and 1513 Ptolemy Geographia. Investigations revealed links to the same printing location allowing a virtual re-connection of previously disparate collection items. Developing an object-oriented approach to data access and sharing requires integration of spectral imaging with data from other sources in a variety of formats. This requires effective spatial metadata to allow linkages to specific locations within the images. This is necessary not only to register locations on the same section of a manuscript leaf in various spectral bands, but also to link other images and transcriptions with the spectral images. Based on geospatial mapping and layering of data used to identify points on satellite images, the same technologies, work processes and skills can be applied to spectral images of manuscripts and using the IIIF framework, expanding current applications to link and annotate layers of heritage and materiality data. Access and interoperability of data are critical elements for any imaging initiative with the establishment of standardized digital protocols for storing and accessing cultural heritage data being vital for interoperability between heritage institutions, and the preservation of international culture in libraries archives, galleries and museums.