The Democratization of Scientific Imaging through Metadata Management and Archival Submission Support

FAIN: PR-258746-18

Cultural Heritage Imaging (San Francisco, CA 94102-5867)
Mark Mudge (Project Director: June 2017 to October 2022)

The development and enhancement of open-source software tools for the collection, management, archiving, and sharing of cultural heritage imaging metadata. Data management processes associated with computational photography would be streamlined and automated through a suite of tools that would make computational photographic techniques, and the images and metadata they generate, more accessible and more sustainable for a wide audience of cultural heritage practitioners.

This work is a collaboration between Cultural Heritage Imaging and the Centre for Cultural Informatics (CCI) in Heraklion, Crete. The project will complete and disseminate a free open source pipeline of scientific imaging software tools that use data captured with off-the-shelf digital cameras and photo gear. These user-friendly tools greatly simplify metadata collection, essential to the scientific documentary imaging of “digital surrogates,” and organize these reusable materials into a standards-based Submission Information Package (SIP) for archival delivery and intake. The tools are for use by cultural heritage practitioners in museums, libraries, and historic sites, as well as by local citizen caretakers around the world. Adoption of the tools and techniques will be enhanced by software internationalization and localization into Arabic. The goal is to democratize the use of these tools to save humanity’s imperiled cultural legacy, especially in North Africa and the Middle East.

Associated Products

Poster: The Democratization of Scientific Imaging Through Metadata Management and Archival Submission Support (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Poster: The Democratization of Scientific Imaging Through Metadata Management and Archival Submission Support
Author: Mark Mudge
Author: Carla Schroer
Abstract: This is a Poster at the Digital Heritage Conference: The Digital Lab Notebook (DLN) project is an open source software tool chain that simplifies scientific imaging. The DLN’s user-friendly tools collect scientific metadata during information capture and processing, essential for building reliable and reusable “digital surrogates” of our cultural heritage. Then the DLN organizes these reusable digital representations and their data into standards-based Submission Information Packages (SIPs) for archival delivery and intake. The tools are for use by cultural heritage practitioners in scholarly disciplines, museums, libraries, and historic sites, as well as by local citizen scientists and caretakers around the world. Software internationalization and an initial translation into Arabic will foster the DLN’s adoption. The goal is to help save humanity’s imperiled cultural legacy through the widespread democratization of documentary technology.
Date: 10/27/2018
Conference Name: Digital Heritage 2018

Book Chapter: “Keeping Track of How We Scan” (Book Section)
Title: Book Chapter: “Keeping Track of How We Scan”
Author: Carla Schroer
Author: Mark Mudge
Author: Brendan Cormier
Editor: Brendan Cormier
Abstract: "Copy Culture: Sharing in the Age of Digital Reproduction explores how digital tools are revolutionizing the cultural heritage landscape through copies. Every day, museums, institutions and individuals alike are digitizing more and more of our global cultural heritage, resulting in vast databases of high-resolution images, 3D models and other forms of digital reproductions. These copies are being shared like never before, reading new audiences around the world, inspiring creativity, enabling learning and aiding preservation.Through essays, interviews and project profiles, the book draws from a cross-disciplinary group of experts to better understand the challenges and opportunities for making, storing, sharing and using digital reproductions, in museums and in everyday life.Copy Culture is a result of ReACH (Reproductions of Art and Cultural Heritage), an initiative spearheaded by the Victoria and Albert Museum with the Peri Foundation, to bring museums and cultural heritage practitioners together to collectively draw a roadmap for the future production and use of digital copies.Contributions by Anaïs Aguerre, Eugene Ch'ng, Chance Coughenour, Marion Crick, Abrahgam Drassinower, David Gissen, Laura Jones, Mari Lending, Adam Lowe, Mark Mudge, Wim Pijbes, Vernon Rapley, Loic Tallon, Merete Sanderhoff, Carla Schroer, Sandra L. López Varela and Diane Zorich."
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/copy-culture-sharing-in-the-age-of-digital-reproduction/oclc/1052443959&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Catalog listing in WorldCat
Secondary URL: https://www.vam.ac.uk/research/projects/reach-reproduction-of-art-and-cultural-heritage#outputs
Secondary URL Description: A free PDF of the book is available from this URL
Access Model: This was published as both a hard copy book, and as a freely available PDF.
Publisher: London : V&A Publishing,
Book Title: Copy culture : sharing in the age of digital reproduction

Instructional Video series: Simplifying Scientific Imaging (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Instructional Video series: Simplifying Scientific Imaging
Writer: Carla Schroer
Writer: Mark Mudge
Director: Marlin Lum
Producer: Cultural Heritage Imaging
Abstract: This is a 5 part video series totaling ~ 1 hour of instructional video material. Learn about the Digital Lab Notebook (DLN) from Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI) This instructional video series is all about the DLN, what it does, how to use the software tools, and more. Add advanced metadata to your imaging projects in photogrammetry and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). Validate you image sets, and learn archival workflows.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://vimeo.com/channels/digitallabnotebook
Primary URL Description: URL for the instructional video series
Access Model: Freely available instructional videos hosted on a Vimeo channel. Creative Commons license
Format: Video

Cultural Heritage Imaging: The Democratization of Scientific Imaging through Metadata Management and Archival Submission Support (Web Resource)
Title: Cultural Heritage Imaging: The Democratization of Scientific Imaging through Metadata Management and Archival Submission Support
Author: Casey Cameron
Author: Cultural Heritage Imaging
Abstract: This is the primary project web page on the Cultural Heritage Imaging website for this Preservation and Access, Research and Development Project.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Do/Projects/neh-dln/index.html
Primary URL Description: Project web page for the NEH funded grant project. The page includes information about the project, and links to all project products

Cultural Heritage Imaging: Digital Lab Notebook Technology Page (Web Resource)
Title: Cultural Heritage Imaging: Digital Lab Notebook Technology Page
Author: Cultural Heritage Imaging
Abstract: This is a web page on the Cultural Heritage Imaging website that describes the Digital Lab Notebook (DLN). It has sections for what it is, how it works, and more information. The page also includes links to related materials.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://culturalheritageimaging.org/Technologies/Digital_Lab_Notebook/
Primary URL Description: This is a web page describing the Digital Lab Notebook (DLN) with links to projects, software, documents, and videos.

Beta: DLN:CaptureContext (Computer Program)
Title: Beta: DLN:CaptureContext
Author: Cultural Heritage Imaging
Author: Erich Leisch
Abstract: DLN:CaptureContext simplifies user management of a large volume of metadata through a user-friendly interface. This interface expedites user metadata input with a template process. For example, following a one-time entry of the user’s photo equipment and associated metadata, the user creates templates and saves commonly used equipment configurations. The software follows a similar process to help the user record and group metadata related to the locations, institutions, imaging subjects, image rights, and people associated with the photographic data acquisition session. Relevant metadata can be entered to an extent determined by the user, grouped as desired, selected with a mouse click at the time of the capture session, and added to the DLN for a specific set of images. The information is then mapped to the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model and exported as Linked Open Data in XML and RDF formats. This software builds on prior work begun in 2013.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Offer/Downloads/DLN/dln-cc/index.html
Primary URL Description: Beta software download page. This includes a user guide download link and links to instructional videos.
Access Model: Free Open Source Software. Note this is a Beta version. The software is available under the GNU GPL version 3 open source license.
Programming Language/Platform: The software is written in C++ and is available on the Windows and Mac platforms.
Source Available?: Yes

Beta: DLN:Inspector (Computer Program)
Title: Beta: DLN:Inspector
Author: Cultural Heritage Imaging
Author: Ronald Bourret
Abstract: DLN:Inspector automatically ensures that each image set meets the requirements for high-quality computational photography imaging. These requirements can be checked algorithmically. For example, Inspector can check that aperture does not change across a given image set. The tool will check for image-processing errors, such as sharpening, that should not be applied to photogrammetry or RTI data. This validation step will ensure users are alerted to potential issues in their image sets. Anyone else who wants to reuse these images can easily find this information.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Offer/Downloads/DLN/dln-insp/index.html
Primary URL Description: Beta software download page. This includes a user guide download link and links to instructional videos.
Access Model: Free Open Source Software. Note this is a Beta version. The software is available under the GNU GPL version 3 open source license.
Programming Language/Platform: The software is written in C++ and is available on the Windows and Mac platforms.
Source Available?: Yes

Bringing Scientific Imaging to a Broad Base of Cultural Communities (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Bringing Scientific Imaging to a Broad Base of Cultural Communities
Author: Carla Schroer
Author: Mark Mudge
Abstract: Presentations in Part III of the symposium explore the ethics of digitization and how issues regarding access and discoverability impact research in art history. Speakers critically examine how technologies, from 3D modelling to artificial intelligence, have the potential to expand audience engagement with cultural heritage institutions and their collections yet also, ironically, limit understanding and community connection by omitting context, introducing bias and legal restrictions, and problematizing concepts of ownership and authenticity.
Date: 01/14/2021
Primary URL: https://www.frick.org/interact/miniseries/technological_revolutions/part_III_schroer_mudge
Primary URL Description: This is a recording of the CHI presentation featuring the Digital Lab Notebook
Secondary URL: https://www.frick.org/interact/miniseries/technological_revolutions
Secondary URL Description: This is the primary website for the overall symposium, which took place in 4 parts.
Conference Name: Technological Revolutions in Art History

Building Reliable and Reusable Complex Digital Representations: The Digital Lab Notebook (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Building Reliable and Reusable Complex Digital Representations: The Digital Lab Notebook
Author: Carla Schroer
Author: Mark Mudge
Abstract: How do we capture, process, and archive digital cultural heritage data in a way that is scientific, transparent, and reusable by others, both today and in the future? How do we enable broad participation in the documentation of heritage especially for indigenous and first nations peoples? How do we separate the quality and authenticity of digital representations from the authority of who created them? This talk will explore the Digital Lab Notebook (DLN), a new set of open source software tools for the near-automatic recording and archiving of computational photography-based digital representations and their contextual and process metadata.
Date: 05/25/2021
Primary URL: https://learning.culturalheritage.org/aic2021
Primary URL Description: This is the conference website
Conference Name: American Institute for Conservation, Annual conference, Transform 2021

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