Upgrade the Classics & Archaeology Virtual Museum
Academic
John Burke
School of Historical and Philosophical Studies
Interns
Gemma Lee and Sophie Claire Russell
School of Historical and Philosophical Studies
Project
The Virtual Museum comprises data about some 2400 items in one of the university's major cultural collections, along with over 23,000 images of them; there are 100 QuickTime Virtual Reality object movies. The website presents an overview of the collections and their history.
Internship outcome
During our internship for the Upgrade of the Classics and Archaeology Virtual Museum, we completed four main tasks. Firstly, we created detailed captions for over 350 objects from the Amman Airport, Jericho, Nimrud and Bab edh-Dhra' collections to improve searchability. Secondly, we generated new data for 112 objects in the Adams Collection which had not yet been added to the Virtual Museum. Thirdly, we analysed the current interface of the Virtual Museum to determine improvements for the user experience. This report will provide guidance on selecting a new database format for the full upgrade in the future. Lastly, we explored the process of generating 3D models of artefacts in the Classics and Archaeology collection, which could later be incorporated into the upgraded Virtual Museum. Overall this project allowed us to enhance our skills in creating metadata, using Excel formulas, managing large data sets, manipulating videos and images, 3D modelling, and analysing user experiences of online interfaces for digital collections.
Want to get involved with the Digital Studio internship program? We welcome applications from research students to undertake the internship, and from academics and external organisations interested in hosting an internship and supervising an intern.