The innovative HLF funded digitisation project at Kendal museum will be digitising the Herbarium collection to Metamorfoze standards. But what is Metamorfoze and why are we digitising the herbarium following this standard?
Metamorfoze is the National programme for the preservation of paper heritage; Metamorfoze is derived from the term for transformation. It is set out by the National Library of the Netherlands and the National archives. Metamorfoze standards provide a set of guidelines for photographers to create preservation images of heritage artefacts. The quality of the image will be measured using the following criteria, colour space, white balance, exposure, noise, illumination and colour accuracy.
The aim of the project is to protect the fragile and valuable collections at Kendal Museum, the herbarium specimens are over 100 years old. A high quality image creates a snap shot in time before further deterioration occurs. The Metamorfoze quality requirements enable the photographer to produce an image which has a very close relation to the original object. Creating high quality preservation images will reduce the need for handling as information can be gained from the digital image.
The images will be available to look at on kendalmuseum.digital, a new website launching in November 2015.
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