IIIF is a set of API specifications

This effort is a set of shared application programming interface (API) specifications for interoperable functionality in digital repositories. IIIF creates new ways to collaborate with other institutions and gain from collective efforts, and the end result is an industry standard that is community-driven. Users and developers are getting together to create specifications usable by all digital repositories. IIIF lets you leverage interoperability and the fabric of the web to access new possibilities and new users for your digital resources, while reducing long-term maintenance, and technological lock-in. IIIF gives users a rich set of common functionalities to view, compare, manipulate, and work with digital items on the web, an experience made portable—shareable, citable, and embeddable.

IIIF is a community effort

IIIF is being developed by a community of libraries, museums, archives, software companies, and other organizations committed to providing access to high-quality image resources. The community is working together to create a common set of APIs to present and manipulate digital content.

Foundational to CONTENTdm

During the redesign of the CONTENTdm website, we made an early decision to support the IIIF. Today, CONTENTdm supports the IIIF Image API and the IIIF Presentation API. We are making IIIF APIs foundational to CONTENTdm development because we want to provide uniform and rich access to the content in CONTENTdm sites. With IIIF, CONTENTdm collection owners can showcase their unique resources in new ways and give scholars and researchers better options for viewing and comparing visual resources within and across repositories.

Helps the digital library community

We want to provide tools for CONTENTdm users as well as resources for software development staff whether they have a CONTENTdm background or not. By participating in the IIIF community, OCLC is sharing best practices and technologies across all types of repositories no matter who has developed the repository.

For technology innovators

If your organization has development staff, you can use IIIF API specifications to build new ways to view and manipulate digital items from all types of repositories. The shared IIIF specifications let you more easily and effectively collaborate with other organizations. To learn more, please visit the IIIF API reference.

For service innovators

With CONTENTdm you now have access to any open-source tools that use IIIF specifications. You can support your community with the latest research support tools to help them get the most out of your unique collections. Even if your institution doesn’t have software development capabilities, you will still get access to this innovative software, developed by others, for your repository through CONTENTdm.

Mirador: an innovative technology for service innovators

A community-driven project called Mirador is just one example of a viewer that takes advantage of IIIF APIs. An end-user viewer designed for side-by-side comparison of manuscripts, Mirador gives researchers rich access to view, compare, and annotate rare and unique content across IIIF repositories. To learn more, please visit the Mirador viewer integration guide.

Extend your reach

IIIF and support for these APIs in CONTENTdm let you link up with a larger community to extend the reach of your digital repository and connect with a broader range of special collections.

CONTENTdm is joining a community effort to promote access to digital repositories.

CONTENTdm responsive website image viewer with International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) Image API support