Presenter
Sanjin Muftic (@sanjinmuftic)
Slides and Recordings
Abstract
In 2021, the Digital Library Services (DLS) department at University of Cape Town Libraries launched a university-wide showcasing platform for the university’s digital collections. The site is called Ibali (isiXhosa for ‘story’) and it utilises semantic web technologies through the open source software of Omeka S as well as IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework). Ibali is part of UCT Libraries’ drive to nurture an Open Access space where digital collections can be created, curated, published, and showcased. It is a highly collaborative and flexible, future-thinking online repository space that supports Digital Humanities projects.
Omeka S allows, through the many modules developed by its growing open-source community, as well as its customisable nature, the building of very diverse yet structured showcase sites. At UCT we have tried to balance this flexibility with the institutional aims of making sure media and digital objects are consistently presented under the university umbrella and enhanced with LOD descriptions. This way our guiding principle is not only about the content, but how well each site weaves the content. In other words, with the help of linked data, how many useful links and connections within and across the showcase collections can be built?
In this presentation I will outline some of the DH projects that form part of Ibali, from collections of landscape photographs, historical documents and creative curations. I will also unpack the various customisations we have enabled towards a more open space for stories to be shared. This is in the hope to extend the digital showcase space for potential storytellers: embracing the transactional, transformative, and migratory nature of images, events, recordings of our archives and our collective memories.