The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and Stanford Libraries have released a public, open platform for the Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME). It will be one of the world’s largest online archives of Middle Eastern and North African artifacts. The DLME aggregates, through an ongoing program, digital records of published materials, documents, maps, artifacts, audiovisual recordings, and more from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
An international collaborative effort under development for four years, the DLME currently brings together 127,443 digital records of materials held in museums, libraries and archives worldwide. It also provides an array of applications, tools and descriptions that enrich the content and facilitate browsing, search and interpretation.
Five curatorial advisors from the MENA region worked to identify and prioritize records for federation during the design phase of the DLME platform, which supports 10 languages. Included are metadata records and thumbnail images of artifacts and documents, including manuscripts, published materials, architectural records, and maps; GIS data; and videos and oral histories. DLME’s ongoing development will focus co-equally on adding records and strengthening the network of participating institutions in the MENA region and worldwide.
The technical platform was developed by a team at Stanford Libraries with leadership from CLIR and funding from the Whiting Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The platform is built upon the open source Spotlight and Blacklight software frameworks, and supports presentation of resources compliant with the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) using the Mirador viewer. Stanford Libraries will continue to serve as the technical partner in operating, enhancing, and populating the site. An International Council of Advisors, made up of individuals who represent the regional and international interests of the DLME, will advise on a range of issues relating to operations and content.
Source: https://www.clir.org/2020/07/clir-and-stanford-libraries-announce-digital-library-of-the-middle-east-platform/