LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Getty today made available more than 30,000 images of objects in the J. Paul Getty Museum collection using the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), which allows researchers to bring together images from different institutional websites for comparison, manipulation and annotation.

By clicking on the IIIF logo next to an image, users can pull together images from different collections, dragging and dropping millions of images and associated metadata from institutions across the world for side-by-side analysis. As a result, for the first time, users can digitally examine works of art held in separate collections worldwide and easily share their findings.

“With IIIF, scholars can move images beyond the confines of separate institutional websites and bring them together for study. It allows for deeper digital engagement with our collections than ever before,” said James Cuno, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

The Getty is a member of the International Image Interoperability Framework Consortium, a group of museums, libraries, archives and other research and educational institutions working together to advance the adoption of IIIF to facilitate scholarship and research.

Another Consortium member, The Yale Center for British Art, also announced today the availability of nearly 70,000 images in its collection. The Yale Center and Getty join a growing number of institutions that are using IIIF or moving toward its implementation.

“The release of these images is just the first step for the Getty as we move toward universal adoption of IIIF for images from both the Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute collections,” said Rich Fagen, the Getty’s Vice President and Chief Digital Officer. “We are excited to help digital arts scholarship reach this next frontier.”

The Getty and Yale Center for British Art release of IIIF images comes as both organizations are joining other members of the IIIF community at an international conference on IIIF development and implementation at the Vatican beginning June 5.