november 2009 qasem abu harb director of archive centre arab studies society; east jerusalem project...
TRANSCRIPT
November 2009
Qasem Abu HarbDirector of Archive Centre
Arab Studies Society; East JerusalemProject Coordinator
Digitizing the Historical Periodical Digitizing the Historical Periodical Collection at Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in Collection at Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in
East JerusalemEast Jerusalem
IntroductionIntroduction Collection of historical Palestinian newspapers and
periodicals at the Al-Aqsa Library in East Jerusalem Provides a rich source of information about the history of the
region and its people Documents the development of the Arab Press in Palestine
in the first half of the twentieth century
Digitization project Aimed at preserving the historical periodical collection Supported by a grant from the Endangered Archives
Programme (EAP) at the British Library
Al-Aqsa Mosque LibraryAl-Aqsa Mosque Library Located in the Haram al-Sharif compound in the Old
City of Jerusalem Established in 1923
Al-Aqsa Mosque LibraryAl-Aqsa Mosque Library Reference library
Serves the needs of researchers and students from Jerusalem and other Palestinian cities
Contains monograph, periodical, and manuscript collections 2,000 manuscripts 14,000 books including 2000
rare titles 70 titles of Arabic language
newspapers and journals
Development of the Arab Press in Development of the Arab Press in PalestinePalestine
Palestinian press developed at the turn of the 20th century Palestine under the Ottoman Empire Palestinians began to establish their
own printing presses Impact of the Christian publishing
houses
Pre-war period: 1908 -1914 Establishment of three major Arabic
language papers Al-Quds (1908, Jerusalem) Al-Karmil (1908,Haifa) Filastine (1911, Jaffa) Title page of Filastine
Arab Press in Palestine Arab Press in Palestine British Mandate PeriodBritish Mandate Period
More diverse publishing landscape Two leading pre-war papers reopen
Al-Karmil and Filastine
New Arab publications Mirat Al-Sharq
Establishment of Muslim Arab papers Al-Jami’ah Al-Arabiah (Jerusalem, 1927) Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqim (Jaffa, 1925)
Relative freedom of press during the first decade of the British Mandate (1919-1929)
Al-Jami’ah Al-Arabiah Organ of the Supreme
Muslim Council
Arab Press in Palestine Arab Press in Palestine British Mandate PeriodBritish Mandate Period
The Buraq riots of 1929 Violent confrontations between Arabs and
Zionists Role of the press in inciting the public
The new Publication Law of 1933 Freedom of press restrictions
Increasingly nationalistic tone of Arabic language papers New papers established in the 1930s
Al-Difa – “Defense” Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiah –“Islamic Union”
Confiscation of many papers during the Arab rebellion of 1936-1939
Closure of papers with the outbreak of WWII
Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiah
Collection at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Collection at the Al-Aqsa Mosque LibraryLibrary
Collection of historical newspapers and periodicals at the Al-Aqsa Library Arabic language papers published in
Palestine and other Arab countries One of the largest collections of
Palestinian serial publications 70 titles Many rare copies unavailable at other
institutions
Preservation and access challenges in managing the collection Deteriorating paper copies Environmental damage Lack of preservation program Limited access to the library Al-Zahra magazine
Damaged page of Al-Difa
Project GoalsProject Goals Preservation
Lack of preservation program Microfilm preservation strategies not available Digitization as a means of creating digital surrogate copies of
deteriorating newspapers for preservation purpose Preservation as the project’s primary goal
Create digital archival copies Safeguard the collection housed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library from the
risk of physical deterioration and destruction
Access Create multiple derivative copies Enhance indexing and searchability by creating searchable text Reduce handling of the fragile print materials
SelectionSelection 24 titles
13 newspapers and 11 journals and magazines 6699 issues 53783 pages
Dates: 1874-1951 Example of a publication from the
Ottoman Empire period Al-Jinan (1874)
Magazines from the pre-war period Al Hasna (1909-1912), Al-Muqtabas (1908-1916)
Most of the publications from the British Mandate period
Al-Jinan magazine published in Beirut in1874;
distributed in Palestine
No. Title in English Title in Arabic Periodical Type Coverage
1 Majalet Rawdat al-Ma’arif المعارف روضة مجلة Magazine 1922-1923; 1932; 1934
2 Al-Kuliyya al-Arabia العربية الكلية Magazine 1927-1938
3 Al-Houkouk الحقوق Magazine 1923-1928
4 Al-Moktubas (Al-Muqtabas) المقتبس Magazine 1907-1912
5 Al-Arab العرب Magazine 1933-1934
6 Al-Jinan الجنان Magazine 1874
7 Al-Mahaba المحبة Magazine 1901
8 Al-Hasna الحسناء Magazine 1909-1912
9 Al-Zahrah الزهرة Magazine 1922-1926
10 Rawdat al-Maaref المعارف روضة Magazine 1326-1327 AH
11 Al-Fajr الفجر Magazine 1935
12 Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiah االسالمية الجامعة Newspaper 1932-1938
13 Al-Jami’ah Al-Arabiah العربية الجامعة Newspaper 1932-1938
14 Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqim المستقيم الصراط Newspaper 1928-1936
15 Sawt al-sha’b الشعب صوت Newspaper 1928-1930; 1934
16 Al-Awqat Al-‘Arabiah العربية االوقات Newspaper 1935
17 Al-Liwa اللواء Newspaper 1935-1937
18 Tazwir Afkar افكار تصوير Newspaper 1909
19 Al-Muqtabas المقتبس Newspaper 1908-1912; 1915-1916
20 Al-Qabas القبس Newspaper 1913-1914
21 Al-Difa’ الدفاع Newspaper 1934-1951
22 Falastin (Filastin) فلسطين Newspaper 1923-1937;1947-1951
23 Al-Iqdam االقدام Newspaper 1935-1936
24 Mirat Al-Shark الشرق مرأة Newspaper 1922-1936
SelectionSelection Major newspapers active in the Arab
nationalist movement during the British Mandate period Filastine Al-Jami’ah Al-Arabiah, Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiah Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqim Al-Liwa'
Variety of magazines and journals Al-Hasna – women’s literary and social magazine Al-Zahra – literary magazine published in Jaffa Al-Fajr - weekly cultural magazine Al-Houkouk - monthly legal and scientific journal Al-Kuliyya al-Arabia – educational journal
published by Arab College of Jerusalem Cover page of Al-Fajr
magazine, June 1, 1935
Al-Liwa' February 17, 1936Organ of the Arab Party
Digitization ProcessDigitization Process
Original paper copies as a source for digital images during the digitization process
Image capture conducted in-house on the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Library Image capture equipment
ATIZ BOOK Drive system with two digital cameras Each scanned page treated as a separate image and saved as
an archival master in the TIFF format Project guidelines based on digital library standards and best
practices Use-neutral approach with the notion of digital master files and
derivatives
Digitization GuidelinesDigitization Guidelines The standards established for the digitization process:
Resolution: 300 dpi File Format: TIFF (Tagged Image File Format ) Compression: None Bit-depth: 8-bit greyscale for black and white newspapers
24-bit RGB (Red-Green-Blue) for pages with colour images
Consistent file naming convention File names consist of a project code (EAP119), unique newspaper
code (three letters) followed by year (four digits), month (two digits), day (two digits), and page numbers (two or three digits starting with zero), for example:
EAP119_arb19330414_01 for the first page of
the issue of Al-Arab published on April 14, 1933
Archival Master FilesArchival Master Files Images created as a direct result of the image
capture process Preservation-quality digital copies
Minimum image processing Saved as uncompressed TIFF files
A source for creating multiple derivative copies Two copies of each digital master in the TIFF format
The first set of archival TIFF files stored at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library
The second set deposited at the British Library according to the Endangered Archives Programme requirements
Extensive documentation for preservation purpose
Derivative FilesDerivative Files Images created from archival master files for access
Available for in-house reading and printing PDF (Portable Document Format) format Digital surrogates of original publications
Unavailable online at this point Creating derivative files
Readiris Pro 11 Middle East edition software Capable of recognizing Arabic language characters Performs OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and converts
images into searchable files Creates derivative files in the PDF format
Limitations of the software Low OCR accuracy
Preservation and DocumentationPreservation and Documentation
Preservation Digital archival files for preservation purpose Derivative files aid preservation by reducing the handling of
paper copies Documentation
Extensive documentation for preservation purpose Recorded on multiple levels
Project – EAP 119 Preservation of historical periodical collection (1874-1951) at the al-Aqsa Mosque Library in East Jerusalem
Institution – The Al-Aqsa Mosque Library Collection – The Newspaper and Periodical Collection and the Al-
Aqsa Mosque Library Individual publications – title in Latin and Arabic, dates and
frequency of publication, format, and publishing history Publishers
Deposited at the British Library
ChallengesChallenges Image capture
Large newspaper format Poor quality of print originals
Torn and smudged pages Irregular fonts
Newspaper layout Poor quality of OCR for the Arabic language Lack of infrastructure for online delivery
Budget shortfalls
Questions?Questions?Qasem Abu HarbDirector of Archive CentreArab Studies Society , East JerusalemProject Coordinator at the Al-Aqsa Library
2001 .qasem @yahoo com