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Start date:
Oct 2015
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End date:
Jul 2019
- Contact:
- Project site
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Funder:
University of Oxford’s IT Innovation Seed Fund, van Houten Fund and GLAM Digital Strategy
Cabinet is an award-winning online platform designed to encourage the use of museum collections in education.
Overview
In addition to its reputation for academic excellence, the University of Oxford possesses extraordinary library and museum collections that document the history of the world and provide vital support to the University’s teaching. The Cabinet project aims to make these resources more accessible for teaching and research through digitisation (both 2D and 3D) and bringing these resources into a single intuitive and interactive interface. The main aim is to embed images and objects from collections in Oxford and elsewhere more seamlessly into teaching and learning, from tutorial to lecture room, enriching the sources available to students and tutors.
The Cabinet platform provides tools for the exploration, annotation and discussion of collections from Oxford and externally. Designed from the beginning to work seamlessly with mobile devices, it can be used to zoom, spin, annotate and discuss sources, increasing the potential for fruitful individual and collective study. The ease of navigation between sources encourages new connections to be made and new insights to be shared by students and tutors alike. In June 2017, Cabinet was the winner of an OxTALENT Award.
A major feature of Cabinet is the ability to explore full-colour 3D models of objects, ranging from minute artefacts a few centimetres across to entire monuments from the Oxford landscape. Access to artefacts is greatly improved for teaching and research, whilst simultaneously freeing up museum curatorial time and reducing wear on the original objects. Oxford Internet Institute researchers are using Cabinet to learn more about the ways in which both staff and students interact with museum collections in the digital environment.
Cabinet is working across the University’s GLAM collections, and with academics from across all four Divisions of the University. It has been supported by funding from IT Innovation Challenges, the van Houten Fund and the GLAM Digital Strategy.
Oxford staff and students can access Cabinet via Single Sign-On. For more information, please contact us.
Explore Oxford’s Collections in 3D
We are using digital photogrammetry to produce highly detailed full colour 3D models of objects from across Oxford’s museum collections which are used in teaching. These range in size from minute objects to entire monuments from the Oxford landscape.
View, Zoom and Explore High–Resolution Images
Documents, maps and images on Cabinet have been digitised where possible directly from the original source. The result is an impressive level of detail with minimal quality lost between the original and online viewing.
Annotate, Comment and Discuss
Cabinet supports annotation of points of interest on 2D images and in 3D space. Simply click and add your text to create your annotation. The comment box allows discussion of your annotation with other course members.
Flexibility for Course Users and Creators
Cabinet has been designed to be easy for Course Creators to create content. Structure your course by any category – Topic, Week, Artistic Movement – anything. And upload anything from one resource to several hundred.
Compatible with Mobile Devices
Cabinet has been designed from the outset to work well on mobile devices. Use intuitive touchscreen controls to spin, zoom and annotate sources from anywhere with an internet connection.
Latest blog posts
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New online exhibition on Cabinet: ‘Star House Pole’
Date Published: 29 July 2019 - 5:26 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
Cabinet has worked with Philip Grover at the Pitt Rivers Museum to create a digital legacy for the exhibition Star House Pole: Early Images ...
Read More New online exhibition on Cabinet: ‘Star House Pole’ -
New Public Cabinet Paper: ‘We Look to the Moon’
Date Published: 12 July 2019 - 8:28 pm
Authors: Sarah Griffin
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first crewed mission to land on the Moon (20 July 1969). In celebration, the Proscholium of the ...
Read More New Public Cabinet Paper: ‘We Look to the Moon’ -
Medieval Manuscripts, IIIF and the History of Medicine on Cabinet
Date Published: 7 May 2019 - 11:15 am
Authors: Sarah Griffin
Cabinet is well known across Oxford for the three-dimensional models of museum objects that we create to promote teaching with material culture. While these ...
Read More Medieval Manuscripts, IIIF and the History of Medicine on Cabinet
People
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Dr Kathryn Eccles
Research Fellow (Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford)
Principal Investigator
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Dr Sarah Griffin
Oxford Internet Institute
Research Assistant
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Jamie Cameron
Research Assistant (Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford)
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Professor Howard Hotson
Professor of Early Modern Intellectual History (Faculty of History, University of Oxford)
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Ted Koterwas
Web and Mobile Applications Team Lead (IT Services, University of Oxford)
Impacts
- The Cabinet team has been working with the ‘Sensing Culture’ project, a collaboration between museums and the RNIB supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to use 3D scanning and printing to improve the accessibility of objects from Oxford’s Pitt Rivers and Natural History collections for blind and partially sighted visitors.
- The Cabinet Project were invited demonstrators at Oxford’s Women in Computer Science taster day for female Year 10 and 11 students in June 2017. With the help of a 3D-printed museum replica, the team showed how social science and humanities research can complement its counterpart in mathematics and the physical sciences.
- In February 2018, the Cabinet Project will visit Cheney School’s ‘Iris Festival of Imagined Worlds’, to help schoolchildren discover why objects are important and how they help us study subjects such as History, Literature and Art. The school is home to the groundbreaking Rumble Museum.
- The Cabinet Project is helping to catalyse the digitisation of museum and library resources in Oxford to make them more accessible for research and teaching within the University, as well as for lifelong learning. Experiencing objects digitally has the potential to improve the ways in which the public can engage with collections at home, or on the go on a mobile device, enabling them to get closer to the museums and their collections.
Videos
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OxCrowd: Tags to Tools: Crowdsourcing to understand and encourage engagement with cultural heritage
Duration: 00:18:07
Date: 6 June 2017
The Oxford Internet Institute is excited to have Kathryn Eccles and Jamie Cameron give the second OxCrowd talk of ... Read More OxCrowd: Tags to Tools: Crowdsourcing to understand and encourage engagement with cultural heritage
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Cabinet Demo: History Special Subject 13
Duration: 00:02:15
Date: 4 May 2017
Digital technologies are revolutionising our ability to integrate objects and images into university teaching.
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Cabinet Project Demo
Duration: 00:02:15
Date: 15 February 2017
Digital technologies are revolutionising our ability to integrate objects and images into university teaching.
News
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Prizes for OII staff and students at Oxford’s OxTalent awards
22 June 2017
The OII picked up prizes at Oxford's 2017 OxTALENT awards, which recognise members of the University who have made innovative use of digital technology.
Blog
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New online exhibition on Cabinet: ‘Star House Pole’
Date Published: 29 July 2019 - 5:26 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
Cabinet has worked with Philip Grover at the Pitt Rivers Museum to create a digital legacy for the exhibition Star House Pole: Early Images ...
Read More New online exhibition on Cabinet: ‘Star House Pole’ -
New Public Cabinet Paper: ‘We Look to the Moon’
Date Published: 12 July 2019 - 8:28 pm
Authors: Sarah Griffin
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first crewed mission to land on the Moon (20 July 1969). In celebration, the Proscholium of the ...
Read More New Public Cabinet Paper: ‘We Look to the Moon’ -
Medieval Manuscripts, IIIF and the History of Medicine on Cabinet
Date Published: 7 May 2019 - 11:15 am
Authors: Sarah Griffin
Cabinet is well known across Oxford for the three-dimensional models of museum objects that we create to promote teaching with material culture. While these ...
Read More Medieval Manuscripts, IIIF and the History of Medicine on Cabinet -
New Cabinet Exhibition: 40 Years of Women at The Queen’s College, Oxford
Date Published: 29 March 2019 - 12:31 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
2019 sees the 40th anniversary of the admission of female students to The Queen’s College, Oxford. To commemorate this historic event, the College is organizing ...
Read More New Cabinet Exhibition: 40 Years of Women at The Queen’s College, Oxford -
Remembering the First World War in 10 objects
Date Published: 8 March 2019 - 11:36 am
Authors: Sarah Griffin
Remembering the First World War in 10 objects is an online exhibition hosted by Cabinet, which has just been released for public viewing. Many of the displayed ...
Read More Remembering the First World War in 10 objects -
The San Zeno Wheel in 3D: Using Cabinet as a DPhil student
Date Published: 27 February 2019 - 8:20 am
Authors: Sarah Griffin
Mid-way through my doctoral studies in medieval art history, while researching northern-Italian diagrams and calendars, I came across a curious object on Sotheby’s website: ...
Read More The San Zeno Wheel in 3D: Using Cabinet as a DPhil student -
First public exhibition published on Cabinet in collaboration with Pitt Rivers Museum
Date Published: 7 August 2018 - 3:29 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
Thanks to support from the University’s Van Houten Fund and GLAM Digital Strategy, Jamie Cameron and Kathryn Eccles have been working with Philip Grover ...
Read More First public exhibition published on Cabinet in collaboration with Pitt Rivers Museum -
OxTALENT Award for use of Cabinet platform in teaching
Date Published: 14 June 2018 - 5:04 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
Congratulations to Professor Christine Gerrard (Faculty of English), whose use of Cabinet alongside lectures whilst teaching her course ‘Democratising the Classics: popular literature, consumer ...
Read More OxTALENT Award for use of Cabinet platform in teaching -
Humanities Teaching Excellence Award for Cabinet User
Date Published: 29 May 2018 - 5:18 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
Congratulations are in order for Professor Christine Gerrard of the Faculty of English, who has just been awarded a Humanities Teaching Award for her ...
Read More Humanities Teaching Excellence Award for Cabinet User -
Cabinet Project contributes to new BBC Augmented Reality App
Date Published: 1 March 2018 - 4:09 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
Researchers from the Cabinet project, led by OII Research Fellow Dr Kathryn Eccles and supported by Research Assistant Jamie Cameron, have worked with Deputy ...
Read More Cabinet Project contributes to new BBC Augmented Reality App -
Mystery Objects at Cheney School
Date Published: 10 February 2018 - 12:47 pm
Authors: Kathryn Eccles
The Cabinet project was delighted to take part in Cheney School’s Iris Festival of Imagined Worlds, held on Friday 9th February. The Festival celebrated novels ...
Read More Mystery Objects at Cheney School -
Cabinet at the UMAC 2017 Conference in Helsinki
Date Published: 10 September 2017 - 1:46 pm
Authors: Kathryn Eccles
Dr Kathryn Eccles gave a short talk about Cabinet to the 17th Annual University Museums and Collections conference, hosted by the University of Helsinki ...
Read More Cabinet at the UMAC 2017 Conference in Helsinki -
Everything you need to know about Cabinet in under six minutes…
Date Published: 20 June 2017 - 2:14 pm
Authors: Kathryn Eccles
Last week, the Oxford University Museums Partnership in collaboration with the Digital Learning Network put on a fantastic event on Digital Learning in Museums. ...
Read More Everything you need to know about Cabinet in under six minutes… -
Cabinet wins University OxTALENT Award
Date Published: 15 June 2017 - 2:12 pm
Authors: Jamie Cameron
We’re delighted to announce that Cabinet came first place within the category ‘Innovation Challenges – Staff’ at the University’s OxTALENT Awards for 2017. Several members ...
Read More Cabinet wins University OxTALENT Award