Today we are excited to launch a new interface which provides you with a suite of tools to better research, use, share and enjoy more than 730,000 images from our Digital Gallery. You can now easily zoom in and out and pan across images, examining them at an extraordinary level of detail, flip through the pages of digitised books and manuscripts, and download images to use, re-use and share with others.
Why not explore the intricate details of the engineering involved in the construction of the cantilevers of the Forth Bridge or examine the fascinating detail of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s passport or pay a visit to The Wee Beer Shop on Edinburgh’s Southside.
Behind the scenes of the interface is an open-source application called Universal Viewer. The Viewer uses IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework), a standard method for describing, delivering and sharing images over the web, and is in use in research and university libraries, museums and galleries all over the world. IIIF allows organisations to build services for their users to compare and annotate images – it also has great potential to digitally reunite disparate physical collections. The Library has been a Founding Member of the IIIF Consortium since 2016.
If you would like to learn more about the new interface, the technologies behind it or our digital collections please contact Gill Hamilton, Digital Access Manager. gill.hamilton@nls.uk
