Julien A. Raemy

Cultural Heritage & Digital Preservation Expert. Active member of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), Linked Art, and the Archival Resource Key (ARK) Alliance.

Summary (tl;dr)

Julien Antoine Raemy (he/him) is a Semantic Architect and Project Manager at docuteam, where he designs and advises on digital preservation systems while driving IIIF strategy and linked data modelling for memory institutions and private companies. He is also an Associate Researcher at the University of Bern (Walter Benjamin Kolleg / Digital Humanities). He holds a PhD in Digital Humanities from the University of Basel, having defended his thesis, Linked Open Usable Data for Cultural Heritage: Perspectives on Community Practices and Semantic Interoperability, in November 2024. He also holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Information Science from the HES‑SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Haute école de gestion de Genève.

He has worked extensively in academia and in or for the cultural heritage domain, including as a Photo Archivist for the Montreux Jazz Digital Project at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2015–2017), as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Haute école de gestion de Genève (2017–2021), as an Interoperability Specialist at DaSCH, Swiss National Data and Service Center for the Humanities (2021–2024), and as a Data Scientist and Project Manager at the Swiss Federal Archives (2024–2025).

With over a decade of involvement in the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) community, he has served on its Coordinating Committee since 2020 and on its Technical Review Committee from 2019 to 2024. He is also a member of the Linked Art Editorial Board and of the Archival Resource Key (ARK) Alliance Technical Working Group.

Julien is particularly interested in ways of improving the digital preservation, dissemination and interoperability of cultural heritage objects and their associated metadata through the application of standards that adhere to the Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD) design principles.

An overview of the research projects he has contributed to is available on the Research Projects page.

Curriculum vitae

Experience :office:

Since January 2026: Semantic Architect and Project Manager at docuteam

  • Leading database migration and mapping to Records in Contexts (RiC) for customer projects
  • Configuring docuteam desk, a submission management application, for pre-ingest: submission spaces, required metadata and validation workflows that streamline ingest into docuteam box or docuteam context, with docuteam feeder running in the background
  • Designing processing workflows in line with the OAIS model in docuteam feeder, from transfer preparation to the creation and ingest of submission information packages (SIPs), alongside ETL pipelines for metadata
  • Defining the IIIF implementation strategy and architectural blueprints for docuteam cosmos, a digital preservation software suite
  • Supporting archival description and dissemination projects, drawing on docuteam context (a RiC-based archival information system) and docuteam sirius (docuteam’s publication portal)
  • Contributing to preserve2027, delivering docuteam box, built on a Fedora 6-based repository system, for the Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt
  • Developing and validating (SHACL) docuteam’s data model ahead of its publication as dereferenceable linked data
  • Producing and translating technical documentation, and providing training and support for customers

Since February 2025: Associate Researcher at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg / Digital Humanities Center, University of Bern

  • Pursuing research on Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD) for cultural heritage, with a focus on interoperable linked data modelling for dispersed photographic archives
  • Bridging research and community practice through ongoing contributions to IIIF and Linked Art (Editorial Board member)
  • Reviewing the TextRefs open standard, an open, persistent, machine‑readable registry for canonical text references, with a focus on JSON‑LD context and entity‑linking modelling issues

Since February 2021: Lecturer (self‑employed/contract)

  • At the HES‑SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Haute école de gestion de Genève, BSc in Information Science
    • Teaching the Introduction to Open Data course: 2023–2024 (16h)
    • Assessing bachelor’s theses as an expert examiner: 2021–2022 (1x), 2022–2023 (1x), 2023–2024 (1x)
  • At the University of Zurich / Zurich Central Library, CAS Data Management and Information Technologies (DMIT)
    • Teaching the IIIF course: 2021 (4h), 2022 (8h), 2023 (8h), 2024 (8h)
    • Monitoring and assessing students’ project work and reports
  • At the University of Zurich / Zurich Central Library, MAS Bibliotheks‑ und Informationswissenschaft (BIW)
    • Teaching the IIIF course: 2021–2023 (4h), 2023–2025 (4h)
    • Monitoring and assessing students’ project work and reports
  • At the University of Bern, MAS in Archival, Library and Information Science (ALIS)
    • Teaching IIIF and Linked Data: 2024–2026 (1.5h)

April 2024 – December 2025: Data Scientist and Project Manager at the Swiss Federal Archives

LINDASnext, a next‑generation scalable platform evolved from LINDAS, enabling Swiss public administrations to publish and visualise their data as knowledge graphs (CHF 2M baseline, approximately CHF 40M implementation phase)

  • Management and coordination: oversaw contractual, financial and resource aspects, coordinating a ten‑person team across more than 15 stakeholders, including the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and the Federal Statistical Office (FSO)
  • Procurement: co‑orchestrated a two‑lot public tender
  • Compliance and scalability: developed a scalable solution compliant with Open Government Data (OGD) directives
  • Concept development: worked with selected bidders and partners to define and coordinate concepts and reports in accordance with the HERMES methodology

ADSnew (Digital Official Publications Modernisation)

  • Strategy and study: analysed scenarios for the evolution of the Online‑Amtsdruckschriften (ADS) portal
  • Implementation: led the adaptation of the resulting concept and prepared its deployment

SIARD‑LD (SIARD zu Linked Data), a research initiative applying semi‑automatic and LLM‑assisted methods to transform relational databases into linked data

  • Collaboration and management: worked with the Fachhochschule Graubünden (FHGR) and oversaw contractual and financial matters
  • Deliverables and innovation: published deliverables on GitHub, conceptualised post‑project implementations and showcased results

IIIF and persistent identifiers

  • Authored a feasibility study for the IIIF Authorization Flow API on the Federal Archives’ Online Access portal
  • Authored a blueprint for deploying persistent identifiers (ARKs) across the Federal Archives’ IT ecosystem

February 2021 – October 2024: Interoperability Specialist at DaSCH, Swiss National Data and Service Center for the Humanities

  • Advising on the use of standards and tools
  • Designing proof‑of‑concept APIs for the DaSCH Service Platform and developing Python scripts to automatically generate IIIF Manifests for all media files across the archive
  • Representing DaSCH within international standardisation bodies, notably as a member of the IIIF Technical Review Committee (TRC), as a contributor to the IIIF 3D Community and Technical Specification Groups, and within the ARK Alliance
  • Organising DaSCHCon on IIIF, 3D & Interoperability (2023) and co‑organising academic conferences
  • Supervising a master’s thesis on IIIF and 3D visualisation

February 2021 – March 2024: Assistant and PhD Candidate in Digital Humanities at the University of Basel, Digital Humanities Lab

July 2020 – December 2020: Knowledge Graph Engineer / IIIF Systems Architect for the Swiss Art Research Infrastructure (SARI) at the University of Zurich

  • Developing an overarching strategy for the integration of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) within SARI
  • Conceiving different IIIF implementation scenarios and assessing which IIIF APIs should be leveraged for the Bilder der Schweiz Online (BSO) project
  • Assessing the conformance of image formats and the optimal conversion recipes for their dissemination on the research platform and the BSO website
  • Building a IIIF Manifest template
  • Representing SARI on relevant IIIF committees and working groups

August 2017 – January 2021: Research and Teaching Assistant in Information Science at the HES‑SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Haute école de gestion de Genève (HEG‑GE)

  • Coordinating the bilingual French‑German curriculum of the BSc in Information Science
  • Teaching the course “Informations‑ und Dokumentationssysteme” and running the hands‑on exercises of the “User‑centred design” and “Linked Open Data in Libraries” courses
  • Assisting Professor René Schneider with his research projects, assignments and the training sessions he gives in continuing education programmes
    • Two‑day continuing education courses on “Web Usability” at CERN in 2017 and for members of the Handschriftenportal (HSP) project in 2019
    • Moderating the workshop “Rolle der Schweizerischen Nationalbibliothek (NB) in der digitalen Gesellschaft” (Role of the Swiss National Library (NL) in the digital society) on 5 December 2018
    • User Friendly Online Services for Scientific Information (UFO) assignments with the Fachhochschule Graubünden (FHGR)
    • Conducting research, reporting and presenting, as well as developing models and approaches for assigning persistent identifiers, within the “Identités de confiance pour les données de l’art et du design” (ICOPAD) project, in partnership with the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK‑ISEA), the Zentralbibliothek Zürich and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)
    • Managing the “Towards IIIF‑Compliance Knowledge in Switzerland” (TICKS) project and the uptake of IIIF in Switzerland, including authoring a white paper and organising the Bern IIIF Showcase outreach event (2018)
    • Managing the “Infrastructure Nationale d’un Complément d’Identifiants Pérennes, Interopérables et Traçables” (INCIPIT) project, which developed ARKetype, an Archival Resource Key (ARK) allocation service in Switzerland

January 2015 – July 2017: Photo Archivist for the Montreux Jazz Digital Project at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Cultural Heritage & Innovation Center (formerly MetaMedia Center)

  • Evaluating, digitising and enriching the metadata of Georges Braunschweig’s Montreux Jazz Festival photography collection (approximately 80,000 items)
  • Checking the quality process and adding metadata on the Montreux Jazz Festival database
  • Conducting research and interviews to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the records and of the added metadata
  • Executing long‑term preservation workflows, including transferring data to servers and magnetic tapes (LTO)
  • Defining long‑term archiving strategies
  • Conducting guided tours for artists, sponsors and friends during the festival at Claude Nobs’ chalet in Caux, where the original audiovisual records are stored
  • Writing a report on Semantic Web technologies
  • Collating anecdotes for the Montreux Jazz Heritage Lab II designed by the EPFL+ECAL Lab
  • Taking part in conferences and working group sessions such as iPRES, IIIF and Museomix

August 2016 – October 2016: University Intern at the University of Basel, Digital Humanities Lab

  • Conducting a survey and writing a report on the criteria for standard digital video formats for long‑term preservation (based on the recommendations of IASA, FADGI and Memoriav)
  • Conducting video transcoding tests with FFmpeg
  • Writing a conference paper demonstrating the benefits of structuring digital video assets according to IIIF concepts for use in archival environments

Community and standards involvement :busts_in_silhouette:

  • Since May 2020: IIIF Coordinating Committee (CoCo) Member
  • February 2019 – September 2024: IIIF Technical Review Committee (TRC) Member
  • Member of the IIIF A/V, 3D and Discovery Technical Specification Groups
  • Sustained contributions to the IIIF Conference Program Committees
  • January 2018 – September 2019: IIIF Outreach Community Group Co‑Chair
  • September 2017 – July 2020: IIIF Code of Conduct Team Member
  • Invited participant in the in‑person editorial workshops on A/V and the IIIF Presentation API 3.0 at the Getty (2017) and the British Library (2018)

formerly “ARKs in the Open (AITO)”

Event organisation

  • 2018: Bern IIIF Showcase (TICKS project), Swiss National Library
  • 2023: DaSCHCon on IIIF, 3D & Interoperability, University of Basel
  • 2024: Linked Art event, University of Basel
  • 2026: docuteam Community Day, Lausanne

Other memberships :handshake:

formerly “Bibliothèque Information Suisse” (BIS)

  • Since March 2014: Member
  • May 2018 – February 2021: Member
  • Since October 2010: Member
  • September 2013 – July 2016: Bar Manager
  • September 2010 – August 2013: Bartender
  • Since January 2008: Member

Education :school:

  • 2021–2024: PhD in Digital Humanities at the University of Basel
  • 2018–2020: Master of Science in Information Science at the HES‑SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Haute école de gestion de Genève
  • 2013–2017: Bachelor of Science in Library and Information Science at the HES‑SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Haute école de gestion de Genève
  • 2010–2011: Professional Business Baccalaureate (“Maturité professionnelle commerciale”) at the École professionnelle artisanale et commerciale (EPAC)
  • 2005–2008: Federal Diploma of Vocational Education and Training, Bookseller (“Certificat fédéral de capacité de libraire”) at the École professionnelle commerciale de Lausanne (EPCL)

Certificates :scroll:

  • 2025: HERMES Foundation, TÜV SÜD Akademie
  • Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

Languages :speech_balloon:

  • French: native
  • English: fluent (C2)
  • German: advanced (C1)
  • Swiss German: conversational
  • Brazilian Portuguese: currently learning

Technical skills :wrench:

  • Semantic Web: RDF/XML, JSON‑LD, Turtle, RDFS, OWL, SPARQL, SHACL
  • Metadata and ontologies: RiC‑O, CIDOC CRM, EAD, ISAD(G), Dublin Core, EDM, MARC, METS/MODS
  • APIs and models: IIIF (Image, Presentation, Authorization Flow, Content Search), Linked Art, Activity Streams, OAI‑PMH
  • IIIF viewers: Mirador, Universal Viewer; usability testing (2017) and viewer matrix evaluation (2022–2023)
  • Programming and data: Python, Bash, SQL, R; OpenRefine, pandas; Git, CI/CD
  • Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, triplestores, Neo4j