Heidelberg University Library provides FID4SA with the technical infrastructure for publishing and archiving digital image and object collections in open access. This service is aimed at selected projects in the field of South Asian Studies and Indology worldwide.

Given the rapid developments in the field of digital humanities, image data and multimedia objects have become one of the most important tools for research. With FID4SAimages, FID4SA provides a digital and interdisciplinary image and multimedia repository that is specifically designed to meet the requirements of these file formats. FID4SAimages is a section of heidICON, the multimedia and object database of Heidelberg University Library, running on the easydb platform (version 5) by Programmfabrik GmbH, Berlin.

FID4SAimages’ hierarchical and object-oriented data management is designed for the description of cultural assets and enables differentiated, event-based in-depth development. The structure of the data model is based on the XML schema LIDO (Lightweight Information Describing Objects), an XML-based application of CIDOC CRM, developed by the LIDO Working Group of the International Committee on Documentation (CIDOC).

FID4SAimages enables the assignment of DOIs and persistent URIs at a dataset level. The database offers interoperability and reusability through IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) and by integrating controlled vocabulary and authority data (such as GND, GeoNames, daiGazetteer) it fulfills central Linked Open Data principles. All functions in heidICON can be controlled via an extensive programming interface (API).

FID4SAimages now also serves as an aggregator database for networking with national and international reference tools such as prometheus, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB) or Europeana.

Using a JavaScript application, the image and multimedia collections can be equipped with an individual (search) interface in a kind of "display window", which can be either integrated into the FID4SA layout or adapted to the layout of the imaging institution's website.