London, UK – 22 April 2020 – Imagen, the intuitive video management platform, has been chosen by the Army Museums Ogilby Trust (AMOT), which represents, supports and promotes the Regimental and Corps museums of the British Army, to host the network’s collection of 2.4 million first World War archives. Founded by Robert Ogilby in 1954 as a means of supporting the regimental tradition and its heritage, AMOT is using the Imagen platform for preservation, research and to provide public access.
Funded by a £5 million grant from the Chancellor of the Exchequer through the fines levied due to the LIBOR scandal, AMOT has implemented the Imagen platform to preserve an extensive catalogue of newly-digitised first World War documents held within the collections of Regimental and Corps Museums across the UK, including letters, war diaries and official papers from over 140 regiments. The scalable nature of the platform enables museums in the network to add digital content and videos to the library, future proofing the archive and protecting the past by ensuring future generations will be able to access this historical content.
Until now, the full breadth of these collections of first World War content held by the network of museums has been seen by very few. The Imagen platform offers easy accessibility for multiple user groups and enables collection holders to tightly control access and usage. The platform will also allow members of the public, students and academics, to search these collections, enabling them to use the archive to research ancestry, military history, military culture and social history.
A major benefit of the Imagen system is that it provides annotation capabilities, making the cataloguing process more efficient, particularly as the platform hosts multiple content types, as well as improving discoverability of the content stored.
Charlie Horrell, CEO, Imagen, said: “We are proud to have been chosen to host this valuable content from a very important period of history and to preserve it for future generations. The accessibility and search functions offered by our platform opens up these archives to members of the public, some for the first time – providing a remarkable research resource and giving them a glimpse into life during the first World War.”
Andrew Lloyd MBE, Director, Army Museums Ogilby Trust, added: “It’s incredibly rare for a group of collections of this scale to be made live for the public to view in one location, however, Imagen has made this possible. A key factor in our decision to implement Imagen was the ease of use offered by the platform which means the public are able to sign up to search and view the archives for research purposes. Some of this content is exclusive to the platform, so being able to easily store and share these collections with the public in a future proof way was vital.”
About Imagen
Imagen is an intuitive video management platform that enables sports organisations, media companies and the enterprise sector to intelligently manage their video content with enhanced functionality, control, and insight. Imagen is being used by global organisations to store, manage and distribute their expanding video and media libraries – enabling fast, easy, secure and controlled access to content through the highly customisable platform.
Imagen’s customers include Premier League, Women’s Tennis Association, BP, Reuters, BBC and IMG, part of Endeavor. The secure platform is also used by the Ministry of Defence, and preserves archive collections for Imperial War Museums, the British Library and the BFI.
