Architectural archives are greatly under-utilised by researchers of many disciplines. Lack of awareness of the research potential contained within them is often compounded by access difficulties. Large format drawings and plans bring their own unique problems of usage and storage and are highly vulnerable to damage caused by frequent handling. This cross-sectoral collaborative project is seeking to address these problems by facilitating access to a digital selection of architectural drawings and associated textual archives, from collections located throughout Scotland. The images will be mounted on a fully searchable web site.
Using studio-quality equipment a core section of 10,000 selected architectural drawings of Scotland and associated material is being digitised. Included are 400 drawings from a collection held by the University of Edinburgh, of Sir Rowand Anderson, one of Scotland’s foremost architects. Where appropriate, conservation will be carried out on selected drawings. The images are catalogued to recognised international standards and mounted on the fully-searchable project web site at www.drawnevidence.ac.uk
The project is being managed and evaluated by a Project Management Group and Project Evaluation Group, comprising partner institutions and academic advisors. The Principal Academic Advisor is Charles McKean, Professor of Scottish Architectural History at the University of Dundee, a recognised authority in this field.
The digitising equipment being used is the Congress 11 camera system with Hasselblad camera back, cold fluorescent light (with shutters for protection during placing of the object), book shuttle and pneumatic table with rising top glass and falling platen. The speed is fully adjustable so maximum clearance for large format objects is achieved. At high resolution 48 bit colour images can be produced. Uninterpolated tiff files are being saved on CD-R and compressed jpeg images used for web dissemination.
Following a longer than expected start-up period during which the equipment was purchased and tested, staff were appointed and management structures established, almost 3,000 images have been produced. They range in size from 25MB to 140MB, their management and web mounting providing a testing challenge. The project team, with the Principal Academic Advisor, have selected drawings, photographs and manuscripts from collections located throughout Scotland, including Playfair, Rowand Anderson and David Bryce drawings from the University of Edinburgh Special Collections, Charles Rennie Mackintosh from Hunterian Museum, David Neave from Dundee University and Gillespie, Kidd & Coia from Glasgow School of Art.
The Project Management Team meet regularly to discuss selection criteria, conservation, evaluation and dissemination, among other issues. The project web site is currently being tested by iBase Image Systems, the large images testing the networks to the limit. The evaluation process is under way and user feedback is encouraged. An end of Programme seminar will disseminate the work of the project and its wider potential to the wider academic community.
Patricia Whatley, Project Manager
Michael Bolik, Project Archivist, IT
E-mail: archives@dundee.ac.uk
Dundee University Archives
University of Dundee
Dundee DD1 4HN
Tel: 01382 344095
Fax: 01382 345523
http://www.drawnevidence.ac.uk
Content: Gill Davenport
Last updated 11 December 2003