About
The Archaeology Image Bank is a resource developed by the Higher Education Academy, and hosted by the Archaeology Data Service. Its aim is to allow users to search for and share high quality archaeological images to enhance the learning experience of scholars, educators, lecturers and researchers within archaeology and its related disciplines. Image Bank has been available on line since 2005 and was updated in 2011.
Funding for the project came from Phase I of the JISC Distributed e-Learning (DeL) Programme in 2005/2006, which allowed for the development of the Image Bank. Initial 'seeding' of the catalogue came via a large collection of images donated by Prof. Clive Ruggles (University of Leicester), and these were quickly joined by images donated by other groups and individuals within the wider archaeological community. These donations have expanded the extent of the Archaeology Image Bank, so that today the catalogue covers many facets of the archaeological discipline over broad chronological, geographical and thematic boundaries. As a result of the good will shown by image donator's the collection has grown considerably.
The current enhancements to the Archaeology Image Bank, added in 2011 have:
- created a more automated procedure for ingestion of donated images, speeding up the ingestion process.
- changed the validation process to one where users report abuse of the resource.
- refreshed and streamlined the interface.
- enhanced the collection with the addition of hundreds of images from existing ADS collections. New images will be added as other image collections are added to the ADS' archive list.
Other sources of information
Romer, W and MacMahon (2007) Archaeology Image Bank Case Study. Final Report. Unpublished Report. - contains more information on the uses of digital images in teaching in archaeology and related disciplines, with a case study using the Archaeology Image Bank.