Digital catalogue of illuminated manuscripts in the Western Collections of the British Library (DigCIM)
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Grant Holder:
Kathleen Doyle
The Project provides catalogue descriptions and images of illuminated manuscripts in the British Library's collection on a collection-by-collection basis. Thus far, entries for illuminated manuscripts in all of the Library's collections are available online and can be found via the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts website at:
www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts
Work on the Royal collection is in progress, funded by a further AHRC grant (see the entry for the Royal project). As of May 2010, there were approximately 4,800 separate manuscript records and 30,000 images on the site. It is envisaged that descriptions of all of the illuminated manuscripts in the British Library's collections will be searchable on the internet, making it one of the world's largest on-line resources for the study of illuminated manuscripts.
Production of compressed JPEG files from uncompressed TIFF files for web dissemination. Generation of HTML files from database data for web-delivery.
Generation of HTML files from database data for web-delivery.
| Project start date: 2004-03 | Project end date: 2007-02 |
Subject domains:
Era(s):
Country/region(s):
| Methods used | Category |
|---|---|
| 2d Scanning and photography | Data capture |
| Resource sharing | Communication and collaboration |
| Cataloguing and indexing | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Content-based image retrieval | Data analysis |
| Data modelling | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Photography | Practice-led research |
| Documentation | Strategy and project management |
| Graphical rendering | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Image enhancement | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Iterative design | Strategy and project management |
| Record linkages | Data analysis |
| Searching and querying | Data analysis |
| Interface design | Data publishing and dissemination |
| text | Content types |
| history | Discipline |
Funding sources:
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), The Getty Foundation funded the intermediate phase of the project on the Harley manuscripts (2007-9)
Content types created:
Dataset/structured data, Still Image/Graphics, Text
Software tools used:
Microsoft Access; Microsoft SQL Server; Microsoft ASP
Source material used:
Illuminated and decorated manuscripts in the British Library drawn from the following collections: Arundel, Burney, Egerton, Hargrave, Henry Davis, Hirsch, King's, Lansdowne, Sloane, Stowe, Yates Thompson. Subsequent projects have added illuminated and decorated manuscripts from the Harley and Royal manuscript collections to the catalogue.
Digital resource created:
Descriptions and Images of some 2000 medieval manuscripts (for full details consult the website). There have been two successor projects which have added further content to the catalogue. As of May 2010 there were 4,800 manuscript records and 30,000 images on the site.
Access to digital resource:
Open Access
Data Formats created:
JPEG File Interchange Format (JPG), Microsoft Access Database (MDB), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)
Institutions affiliated with this project:
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| School of Advanced Study |
| Courtauld Institute of Art |
| University of London |
| UK HE institutions involved: |
|---|
| The British Library |
Project staff and expertise:
| Principal staff member: | Professor David Ganz; Mr Peter Kidd (initial phase); Dr Scot McKendrick; Professor John Lowden; Dr Kathleen Doyle (current phase) |
|---|---|
| Other staff: | Postdoctoral researcher(s) / Research assistant(s) |
| External expertise: |
| Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) of record | Kathleen Doyle |
| Title | Digital catalogue of illuminated manuscripts in the Western Collections of the British Library (DigCIM) |
| Record created | 2007-07-03 |
| Record updated | 2010-07-19 23:35 |
| URL of record | http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2221 |
| Citation of record | Kathleen Doyle: Digital catalogue of illuminated manuscripts in the Western Collections of the British Library (DigCIM). <http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2221> created: 2007-07-03, last updated 2010-07-19 23:35 |