CTDA Labs is where we develop and experiment with new features for the CTDA, new ideas related to digital preservation and discovering and using digital content. Projects can be large or small and are typically collaborations with CTDA members, external organizations, academic departments at UConn and elsewhere, or just about anyone who is interested in experimenting.
Practical outcomes are not necessarily required, but all are aimed at increasing our understanding of how to collect, preserve, manage, and present digital assets.
Projects often begin with an idea, and grow through experimentation, and sometimes get to the point of external funding through grants, and sometimes even to public release and use–either within the CTDA system or beyond.
If you have an research or experimental idea, let us know!
Current Projects
Handwriting Text Recognition
Funded by a grant from LYRASIS Catalyst Fund, HTR is exploring the development of automated transcription of handwritten texts, focusing on the Late Colonial and Earl Republic era in American history.
CTDA - CLHO Connector
Funded in part by a grant from Connecticut Humanities, the CTDA Connector is a partnership between the Connecticut League of History Organizations and the CTDA to allow organizations to use third-party tools to manage collections in the CTDA.
3D Photogrammetry
In collaboration with UConn's Digital Capture Lab, this project is exploring the requirements for preserving and making available 3D digital objects in a preservation repository.
GLAM Gear
Funded by a grant from the UConn SCHARP program, and in partnership with the Department of History, and Greenhouse Studios, GLAM Gear seeks to create an end-to-end, low-cost hardware and open source software workflow for digitization projects.
Courtroom 600
Funded in part by a grant from the NEH and led by Greenhouse Studios, Courtroom is an 3D interactive virtual reality (VR) experience that explores histories of the Holocaust through archival materials.
Connecticut Collections Alliance
Funded in part by a grant from Connecticut Humanities, the CCA project is enhancing metadata in the CTDA and creating topical collections to make the collection more inclusive of multiple cultural and intellectual perspectives and highlight content in the CTDA relating to current noteworthy topics.
CTDA in Context
A joint project by the State Library and Archives, the Hartford Public Library, and the CTDA, the Municipal Records project will work with town governments across the state to insure digital records are preserved and available to the people of Connecticut. This project is in early development.
ICTY Digital Archive
Funded in part by private donations, the ICTY digital archive is a collaborative project between the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and the CTDA. The archive provides access to a range of documents and other records associated with the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Metadata Harvester
More info coming soon!
DPLA - Wikimedia Integration
Working with the Wikimedia Foundation and the Digital Public Library of America, the CTDA is enhancing its metadata and developing back-end technology so its resources can be included in the Wikimedia Commons and available to illustrate Wikipedia articles.
Rights Statements Conversion Project
The CTDA is developing and expanding its "global search and replace" ability to regularize rights statements to fit the new Standardized Rights Statements requirements in the CTDA
IIIF Research
International Image Interoperability Format (IIIF) is a community of research, national and state libraries, museums, companies and image repositories committed to providing access to high quality image resources. The IIIF technology promises to bring more and better ways to exchange, combine, and share digital resources. We are preparing the CTDA technology infrastructure to participate in IIIF exchanges.
Oral History Metadata Sync Connection
A project with Trinity College and the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford to connect content in the CTDA to the Oral History Metadata (OHMS) Sync platform.
Municipal Records Project
A joint project by the State Library and Archives, the Hartford Public Library, and the CTDA, the Municipal Records project will work with town governments across the state to insure digital records are preserved and available to the people of Connecticut. This project is in early development.
Previous Projects
CHS Digital Catalog
Funded in part by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the CT Department of Economic and Community Development, the CHS digital catalog is a custom presentation layer that will combine CHS's digital and non-digital collection content in a single search interface.
eRegs
The original project created an automated connection between the Secretary of the State of Connecticut and the CTDA to archive the Regulations of the State of Connecticut. The work behind the eRegs project provided the framework for the CTDA Connector project.
Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning
Preliminary research into using neural nets to determine the content of typewritten documents. While preliminary research was promising, this project is on hold while we seek funding to continue our research.
Standardized Rights Statements
In February 2020, the CTDA implemented standardized rights statements from Rightsstatements.org. This allows users to sort search results by copyright status making it easier to determine when and how objects from the repository may be used.
DPLA participation
With support from UConn's Department of Computer Science, and the Department of Digital Media and Design, the CTDA developed the workflow to export object records from the CTDA to the DPLA. This project was complete in September 2019.