Glasgow Emblem Digitisation Project

Project start date: 2004-09 Project end date: 2006-09
The site has been developed, with generous funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Resource Enhancement Scheme, by a team led by Post-Doctoral Research Assistant Jonathan Spangler, and Project Director Alison Adams. All but two of the emblem books digitised are from the Stirling Maxwell Collection in Glasgow University Library. The Bodleian Library and the Bibliothèque Mazarine have generously made material available to enable us to present the complete corpus. The Project is undertaken within the OpenEmblem initiative. The French website has been complemented by two add-on projects: Alciato at Glasgow (funded by the British Academy); and, The Study and Digitisation of Italian Emblems (funded by the EU (Marie Curie)). The Italian site, developed by Donato Mansueto (Bari) is still under development.
Era(s): 
Country/region(s): 
Methods usedCategory
2d graphic designPractice-led research
2d modelling - rasterData structuring and enhancement
2d scanningPractice-led research
2d Scanning and photographyData capture
Accessibility analysisStrategy and project management
Resource sharingCommunication and collaboration
Cataloguing and indexingData structuring and enhancement
Coding and standardisationData structuring and enhancement
CollatingData analysis
CollocatingData analysis
IndexingData analysis
Content analysisData analysis
Content-based image retrievalData analysis
Data miningData analysis
DocumentationStrategy and project management
Iterative designStrategy and project management
Text encoding - descriptiveData structuring and enhancement
Text encoding - presentationalData structuring and enhancement
Text encoding - referentialData structuring and enhancement
ParsingData analysis
Record linkagesData analysis
Risk managementStrategy and project management
Searching and queryingData analysis
Server scriptingData publishing and dissemination
System quality assurance and code testingStrategy and project management
Version controlStrategy and project management
Textual interaction (asynchronous)Communication and collaboration
Usability analysisStrategy and project management
Interface designData publishing and dissemination
preservationStrategy and project management
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)Metadata standards
textContent types
historyDiscipline
Funding sources: 
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Content types created: 
Dataset/structured data, Still Image/Graphics, Text
Software tools used: 
XMetal; Oxygen; Apache; MySQL; PHP; Adobe PhotoShop; MS Word, Access and Excel
Source material used:  
16th and 17th century books, largely from Glasgow University Library (Stirling Maxwell Collection), with some material from the Bodleian Library, and the Bibliothèque Mazarine.
Digital resource created:  
A database of 27 browsable emblem books dating from 1536 to 1615, in both transcribed and facsimile versions, with extensive search functionality, in both old and modern spelling. The images (central to this genre) and the text are also searchable using the controlled vocabulary of the Iconclass system.
Access to digital resource:  
Open Access
Data Formats created: 
Text in XML; images in uncompressed 24 bit TIFF format with JPEG images derived from these in various sizes for web use.
Generation of HTML files from XML data for web-delivery; production of compressed JPEG files from uncompressed TIFF files for web dissemination; Iconclass data was encoded on-line with the Iconclass server in the Netherlands
Metadata standards employed: 
Dublin Core, simple (DC), Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)

Institutions affiliated with this project: 

UK HE institutions involved:
University of Glasgow

Project staff and expertise: 

Principal staff member:Alison Adams, Stephen Rawles, David Weston
Other staff:Computing officer(s) / Technical supporter(s), Postdoctoral researcher(s) / Research assistant(s)
External expertise:


Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record
Author(s) of recordAlison Adams
TitleGlasgow Emblem Digitisation Project
Record created2010-07-02
Record updated2010-07-02 15:53
URL of recordhttp://www.arts-humanities.net/node/3552
Citation of recordAlison Adams: Glasgow Emblem Digitisation Project.
<http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/3552>
created: 2010-07-02, last updated 2010-07-02 15:53