IIIF

Implementation of IIIF for Natural History Collections

The CETAF Identifier specification provides a uniform way for people and machines to access textual data about specimens over the internet but one of the primary use cases is to access images of specimens. These pages document best practice for exposing specimen images using IIIF and why this approach is recommended. The initial development of these recommendations was carried out as part of an EU funded Synthesys+ Task 4.3 (2019-2021) which was part of the larger DISSCo initiative.

IIIF ([International Image Interoperability Framework]) is an exchange standard for sharing multimedia representations of objects on-line. It has been adopted by many institutions and commercial partners in the digital humanities community but, before Synthesys+ Task 4.3, was not used in the Natural History community.

There is quite a lot of information here so it is split across multiple pages.

• IIIF Background - Why IIIF looks like the right fit for Natural History Specimens.
• IIIF Framework - An overview of the IIIF Framework including the standards and organisation.

Linking

• IIIF Linking HTML - How to link to and from a IIIF Manifest and a HTML page.
• IIIF Linking CETAF IDs - How to link to and from a IIIF Manifest and CETAF ID.
• IIIF Linking Darwin Core - How to link from Darwin Core Archive files to IIIF Manifests
• IIIF Linking ABCD - How to link from ABCD metadata to a IIIF Manifest
• IIIF Linking CSV - Linking from generic CSV download files.

Deployments

Case Studies

• IIIF RBGE Example - How IIIF is implemented at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E)
• IIIF Herbaria Mundi - An example of combining IIIF resources from multiple sources
• IIIF BGBM Example - How IIIF is implemented at the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin (B)
• IIIF MfN Example - How IIIF is implemented at Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
• IIIF Meise Example - How IIIF is implemented at Meise Botanic Garden

Installations

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E)

• Status: IIIF end point in production.
• Example CETAF ID: https://data.rbge.org.uk/herb/E00008781
• Example IIIF Manifest: https://iiif.rbge.org.uk/herb/iiif/E00008781/manifest

Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin (B)

• Status: IIIF end point in production.
• Example CETAF ID: https://herbarium.bgbm.org/object/B200012401
• Example IIIF Manifest: https://herbarium.bgbm.org/data/iiif/B200012401/manifest.json

Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN)

• Status: IIIF end point in production.
• Developers actively contributing to IIIF viewer code bases.
• Example CETAF ID: https://portal.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/detail/179377
• Example IIIF Manifest: https://portal.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/api/v1/iiif/manifest/179377/manifest.json

Meise Botanic Gardens

• Status: IIIF end point in production.
• Example CETAF ID: https://www.botanicalcollections.be/specimen/BR0000022705044
• Example IIIF Manifest: http://iiif-manifest.oxalis.br.fgov.be/specimen/BR0000022705044/manifest

Asociación Jardín Botánico La Laguna (LAGU)

• Status: IIIF in production.
• Example CETAF ID: http://lagu.jacq.org/object/PG-03584
• Example IIIF Manifest: http://lagu.jacq.org/iiif/PG-03584

Institute of Botany, Ilia State University (TBI)

• Status: IIIF in production.
• Example CETAF ID: http://tbi.jacq.org/object/TBI1038592
• Example IIIF Manifest: http://tbi.jacq.org/iiif/TBI1038592

Herbarium Rita & Eckhard Willing Herbarium

• Status: IIIF end point in production.
• Example CETAF ID: https://willing.jacq.org/object/JACQID1184346
• Example IIIF Manifest: http://willing.jacq.org/iiif/JACQID1184346

Finish Museum of Natural History (Luomus)

• Status: IIIF near production. Image API in place Presentation API to follow.
• Example CETAF ID: http://id.luomus.fi/KN.17856
• Example IIIF Image: https://iiif-laji.rahtiapp.fi/iiif/3/MM.1619624/info.json

University of Leipzig, Herbarium (LZ)

• Status: Herbarium LZ is in the process of moving the images to a new IIIF enabled infrastructure which is already quite mature, i.e. json manifest file already in a draft version available.
• Example CETAF ID: https://lz.jacq.org/LZ220043

NHM Vienna (W)

• Status: Herbarium W and other departments are restructuring IT Data related operations at the museum, these processes also include visualisation of images; since they are also participating in three Virtual Access projects this is currently a priority and shall be in place in summer 2021.
• Example CETAF ID: https://w.jacq.org/W0100330

University of Vienna, Herbarium (WU)

• Status: Move to IIIF capable infrastructure was scheduled for 2020 but has been postponed to 2021. Now expected to be in place by summer 2021.
• Example CETAF ID: https://wu.jacq.org/WU0044029