Global consortium forms to standardize and improve sharing and displaying of image-based scholarly resources on the web

Leaders from eleven research libraries, national libraries, and nonprofit image repositories met at Oxford University to form the International Image Interoperability Framework Consortium.

Access to image-based resources is fundamental to research, scholarship and the transmission of cultural knowledge. Until now, much of the Internet’s image-based resources have been locked up in silos, with access restricted to custom-built applications. The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) supports uniform display of images of books, maps, scrolls, manuscripts, musical scores and archival material from participating institutions for display, manipulation, measurement and annotation by scholars and students working individually or in groups around the world.

Academic Computing Services, which is now part of the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning (VPTL), is in the process of closing the Tresidder LaIR computer cluster.  The LaIR is expected to close on June 11th. A comparable computer cluster, along with printing service is expected to open inside the Old Union in the fall.

Research Information interviewed, among others, Tom Cramer, Chief Technology Strategist and Associate Director for Digital Library Systems and Services at the Stanford Libraries, about trends in global usage of institutional repositories.