Leiden University’s collection of architecture images

In the course of time, within the Department of History of Architecture at Leiden University a broad and specialised collection of photographs and slides has grown. This architecture collection is to be regarded as a part of the general collection of the Print Room and the Institute of Art History, yet has its very own characteristicts, due to the fact that it contains images of the built environment in both the old western world and the other world regions. It was regretted that up ‘till now the vast collection, consisiting of almost 30,000 unique items, wasn’t fully available to colleagues and students in the most satifactory sense. The opportunity offered by the DECA project to digitalise the slides and make the results available through modern digital means was therefore welcomed happily and eagerly.
After completion a considerable group of users will have access to the most important parts of the rich collection and the vulnerable and deteriorating slides and their paper indexes won’t have to be used anymore, and will have digital successors of high quality. The content of these digitalised images is recorded in a complex database and will be made available through a Leiden intranet, designed for scientific and educational purposes, and through the public internet, where the collection is fused with those of the project partners.
Professor dr. A.J.J. Mekking is, as its supervisor, responsible for the accompaniment and coordination of the Leiden part, being ‘Partner 4, NL’. Drs. J.W. Veerman, former student in Leiden and as independent building and architecture historian experienced with a.o. digitalizing images and databases, has been assigned as the daily executor. Specialists at Leiden University of the Faculty of Arts and the Institute of Art History operate as advisors on specific subjects.

More information on Leiden University: http://www.leidenuniv.nl/
and the Institute of Art History: http://www.kunstgeschiedenis.leidenuniv.nl/