A press conference was held on Monday, May 6, at the prestigious Palazzo Massimo in Rome to unveil the new MNR Digital portal – Collections and Archives, developed by GruppoMeta with the support of American Express Italy.

The newly integrated management system, based on the metaFAD software, focuses on enhancing and disseminating the archaeological, archival, and photographic heritage of the museum, making it globally accessible.

The front-end features a digital showcase that allows users to consult catalog records (RA) and photographic archives (F records) managed in the background by the metaFAD cataloging software. Users can view high-resolution images through an IIIF viewer. A total of 52,237 RA records have been acquired, with 15,729 associated image containers. Additionally, there are 543,819 F records linked to 294,010 containers, resulting in 52,000 records for the catalog archive and 500,000 records for the photographic archive managed by the interoperable cataloging software, metaFAD.

The metaFAD software has enabled the addition of new fields to the standard ICCD record layouts, enriching the information contained within artifact/image records. When the Inventory field is populated, it facilitates connections between RA and F records, allowing users to simultaneously consult artifact records and their corresponding photographs.

The project presentation featured key participants, including Stéphane Verger, Director of the National Roman Museum; Carlo Birrozzi, Director of the Central Institute for Cataloging and Documentation; Maria Pina Carai, Head of Client Management for Global Merchant Services Italy at American Express; Chiara Giobbe, Head of Inventory and Catalog Services at MNR; and Agnese Pergola, Head of the MNR Photographic Archive. The project’s development presentation was conducted by Rubino Saccoccio of GruppoMeta.