Using Static IIIF for Digital Scholarship: the Paul Thomas Annotated Project
Although more and more Digital Scholarship tools support IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework), deployment barriers such as server requirements and sustainability and maintenance concerns put these features out of reach for many projects. In this presentation, we’ll describe the static web approach we are using for Paul Thomas Annotated, a digital scholarship project featuring annotated, IIIF-capable screenshots from Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography.
Our approach involves using free and low-cost tools to create and deploy level-0 IIIF image derivatives and manifests, collaboratively encode IIIF annotations, and publish our collection. Our project website uses CollectionBuilder (a Jekyll-based digital exhibition tool), customized to feature a IIIF viewer, a faceted search for project-specific metadata, and a unique front-end design inspired by the aesthetics of the films themselves.
We’ll reflect on how minimal computing principles shaped our technology choices and explore the strengths and challenges of our approach. Finally, we will identify some gaps in existing tools and infrastructure needed for sustainable and scalable IIIF.