As global interest in the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) has gained momentum, we’ve been working behind the scenes to add IIIF support to Veridian.
We’re pleased to announce that Veridian (as an IIIF server) has been developed to support both IIIF Image and Presentation APIs. These APIs will be available to existing Veridian collections after the next scheduled upgrade.
Our team is looking forward to working collaboratively with our customers and the IIIF community as the technology and adoption of IIIF advances.
IIIF in a nutshell
“Enabling richer access to the world's images”
Traditionally, digital image based resources have been siloed within separate, often incompatible systems which ran the risk of becoming obsolete. Institutions have found these difficult to maintain over time as technology and needs evolved.
IIIF presents significant advancements for collections of digital images. The standardised specifications remove the need for each digitized collection to be worked on in its own terms. Instead, a global network of image suppliers is working together to make content available in a common, interoperable framework.
There are many benefits to the end-user too. They can easily access images from multiple collections around the world, creating far greater opportunities for comparison, interaction and dialogue.
Images viewed via IIIF can be annotated, cited, shared with others, embedded into website pages and explored closely with deep zoom.
For more detailed information about IIIF see the IIIF FAQs page.
IIIF and digital newspaper collections
There is much discussion about how IIIF might be best used in relation to digital newspaper collections, which are our main focus here at Veridian.
We’re looking at the feasibility of using Veridian as an IIIF viewer for newspapers. In the meantime we’ve implemented the IIIF Image and Presentation APIs, with Veridian acting as the server.
Next steps
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts/wishlists relating to IIIF and digital collections.
Please get in touch if you’d like to join the conversation.
There are exciting things ahead!