The multimedia Yasna International image interoperability framework

This project develops a technology for annotating textual structure within IIIF.

Images published on the Web are currently locked up in silos because institutions use different image delivery software on their networks, one that is usually tightly coupled with their custom metadata structures. This has led to isolated data silos that prevent information to be easily reused. The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) solves this problem with a set of protocols or Application Programming Interfaces (API), for requests between computers to allow images and metadata held in different digital repositories to be accessed in a standardised format. The IIIF standard is now used by a growing number of major libraries and other institutions around the globe.

However, it is not possible in IIIF to locate a particular text passage without searching the whole manuscript because there are no tools to create and search document structure (as opposed to textual annotations and commentaries, for which tools already exist). MUYA-IIIF will establish proof of concept of the idea, generated by the ERC-funded project The Multimedia Yasna (MUYA, AdG 694612, 2016–2023), to develop and implement a IIIF compliant tool for annotating textual structure (e.g. siglum, title, folio number, chapter, stanza, verse), associate the image with the structured transcription of the text it bears, and make such structure detectable within IIIF. 

This PoC will 1) enable “expert sourcing” via an open source platform to capture structural information in multiple manuscript witnesses; 2) represent structural information in a way that connects the intellectual structure of the object with the user’s viewing experience; 3) potentially use machine assisted segmentation in marking up the text to create structure; 4) connect the metadata, structural metadata, and TEI-XML transcripts with the images in a unified user experience; 5) use open source software built on open standards, to create a reusable seamless user experience that replaces a typically onerous process.