As well as its excellent academic reputation, 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. Cabinet 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Project role: Principal Investigator
Kathryn Eccles has research interests in the impact of new technologies on Humanities scholarship, and the re-organisation of cultural heritage and higher education in the digital world.
Former Research Assistant
Project role: Research Assistant
Sarah Griffin is a medieval art historian interested in the use of museum collections for teaching, which she investigated as a Research Assistant for ‘Cabinet’ and as a Junior Teaching Fellow at the Ashmolean Museum.
Former Research Assistant
Project role: Research Assistant
Jamie Cameron uses 3D imaging to support museum learning through the online education platform 'Cabinet'.
Professor of Early Modern Intellectual History, Faculty of History, University of Oxford
Web and Mobile Applications Team Lead, IT Services, University of Oxford
