Content-based image recognition on printed broadside ballads: The Bodleian Libraries' ImageMatch Tool

This paper introduces the Bodleian Ballads ImageMatch tool, developed by the Visual Geometry Group of the University of Oxford’s Department of Software Engineering on behalf of the Bodleian Libraries. ImageMatch was designed to assist with the cataloguing and study of the pictorial content of early British printed broadside ballads, but has potential value for many other kinds of printed material. The paper outlines the nature of the materials to which ImageMatch has been applied; describes how the tool works and what it can do; and will offers some discussion on the benefits of ImageMatch’s for image-cataloguing in Rare Books collections.