JISC

This project (VERDI) has developed a technical framework for the digitisation, cataloguing and web presentation of specialist material.  The project has also created 'snippets' of code for embedding in websites and allowing searching of one or more specified collections.  Documentation allowing for wider adoption of the framework will be available to academics at the Univeristy of Kent and to the wider academic community.

The project will create the framework by generalising the infrastructure and standards developed for the JISC funded British Cartoon Archive Digitisation project and then demonstrate its applicability by using it to produce new or enhanced digital content from three underdeveloped collections owned by the University (sporting cartoons; slides of an archaeological dig, windmills and watermills).

To ensure the sustainability of the project outputs, the framework will be adopted by the University and embedded in its own Special Collections. The framework will enable both the collections within the bid and the full range of existing developed collections in the University to be accessible within a common standards-based infrastructure which will allow both federated searching across the collections and searching of individual collections. Finally, the project will document and promote the technical framework so that it may be exploited across the sector in order to make other hidden collections visible.

Download the final report (PDF)

Download the project plan (PDF)