Leiden University Libraries joins the International Image Interoperability Framework Consortium
A growing community of the world’s leading research libraries and image repositories have embarked on an effort to collaboratively produce an interoperable technology and community framework for image delivery.
Digital images
Access to image-based resources is fundamental to
research, scholarship and the transmission of cultural
knowledge. Digital images are a container for much
of the information content in the web-based delivery
of images, books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps,
scrolls, single sheet collections, and archival materials.
Yet much of the Internet’s image-based resources are
locked up in silos, with access restricted to bespoke,
locally built applications.
Goals
The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)
has the following goals:
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To give scholars an unprecedented level of uniform and rich access to image-based resources hosted around the world.
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To define a set of common application programming interfaces (API) that support interoperability between image repositories.
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To develop, cultivate and document shared technologies, such as image servers and web clients, that provide a world-class user experience in viewing, comparing, manipulating and annotating images.
As a founding member, Leiden University Libraries will integrate the IIIF image delivery technologies into its digital library infrastructure.