The Qatar Unified Imaging Project Mission

QUIP will provide open access to the historical and cultural material of Qatar: to preserve the unique character of Qatar by providing easy access to digitized primary source materials in an agile centralized collection carefully managed and preserved for a persistent, authentic and continually-growing resource; to promote awareness and understanding of Qatari history, culture, and heritage; to provide an unprecedented opportunity for learning in Qatari schools and universities; to add to Qatar’s growing knowledge economy, create intellectual currency, and benefit Qataris and others interested in Qatar.

QUIP is…

Funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) through the National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) in June 2010
A 3-year research collaboration between Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar, Qatar University, Exeter University, Illinois State University, Ministry of Culture and the National Museum of Qatar
Advised by a steering committee of Qatar’s cultural and historical experts
Working to identify significant collections of primary source materials about Qatar and the surrounding Gulf
A transnational project looking at holdings in Qatar, the United Kingdom, India and Denmark

QUIP timeline and deliverables

Year-1 field research to collect descriptive information about the institutions and/or private collectors that house primary source materials published through an Encoded Archival Descriptive (EAD) finding aid that will be freely available through VCUQatar’s website in early 2012
Year-2 on-going field research; digital reformatting and classification of primary sources under the direction of the steering committee who will select 10,000 objects (tangible and fixed-intangible) within Qatar as the founding digital research collection for Qatar
Year-2 a taxonomic thesaurus and authority file for names, birth-dates and death-dates particular to Qatar and the Gulf Arab states created and used for normalizing descriptive data. Information access points from the published EAD finding aid imported as XML and records for the digital substitutes are created according to international standards
Year-3 continued work on digital reformatting and translation of entry points for bi-lingual Arabic and English access. Create standards based lessons for K-12 teachers. Lesson plans will integrate subject areas utilizing primary source materials within QUIP as a link to understanding learning concepts; linking past and present. VCUQatar will host a 3-day workshop for educators to promote the use of QUIP’s digital assets and build educator confidence in using primary sources and digital objects in the classroom.
The QUIP database will launch in December of 2013.

QUIP values

Collaboration
Preservation
Equal Access to information
Open standards for object records and storage formats ensuring high data portability, digital longevity and persistence
Qatari empowerment on all aspects of QUIP’s collection creation, maintenance and growth to ensure a comprehensive and authentic resource

QUIP Outcomes

A centralized index on Qatari primary source materials freely accessible
Significant narrative objects about Qatar are given wider access
We build bridges among cultural institutions and educational institutions
Displaced primary sources are brought together digitally
Stimulate awareness of Qatar’s rich history and traditions