parchment to pixel: the walters islamic manuscript digital project
DESCRIPTION
Diane Bockrath presentation for "New Voices in the Profession" session at the VRA + ARLIS/NA 2nd Joint Conference in Minneapolis, MN.TRANSCRIPT
Parchment to Pixel:The Walters Islamic
Manuscript Digital Project
Diane E. BockrathDigitization Specialist
Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
The Walters Art MuseumManuscripts & Rare Books
900 illuminated and illustrated medieval and Islamic manuscripts, both religious and secular in natureSecond most significant collection in the Western HemisphereA collection of exceptional quality, containing consummate works of art
The Projects
Islamic Manuscript Digital Project (2008-2010): 128 Islamic codices and 60 loose leaves
Parchment to Pixel (2010-2012): 105 English, Dutch, German, Byzantine, Armenian, and Ethiopian codices
Digitization Goals
To create full digital surrogates with accompanying metadataTo release images on a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike licenseIslamic collection: well conserved, a cataloging opportunity, and an area of emerging scholarly interest
Digitization Workflow
Conservation ReviewMetadata EntryImage CaptureVerificationColor CorrectionAutomationInspectionCatalogingData transfer
Metadata
Dublin Core: Embedded in the header of each master TIFF (entered prior to imaging)Text Encoding Initiative (TEI): Accompanies images as an XML file (created after imaging)
Walters Electronic Cataloging Tool
Walters Electronic Cataloging Tool
Image Capture
Image Capture
Image Capture
Image Capture
Color Correction
Quality Control
Derivative Images
Master TIFF: 600PPI text folios / 1200PPI illuminated foliosPrint Publication TIFF: 300PPIWeb JPEG: 1800-pixel line fileThumbnail: 190-pxel line file
Cataloging
The Digital Collection
How can you see the images?
The Digital WaltersWalters Art Museum Web siteFlickrTwitterUNESCO World Digital LibraryAcademic databases: ARTstor, Digital Scriptorium, Index of Christian Art (Parchment to Pixel manuscripts)
The Digital Walters:www.thedigitalwalters.org
Walters Art Museum Web Site
Flickr:Walters Art Museum Illuminated
Manuscripts
Twitter: @medievalMss, @WillNoel,
@walters_museum
Successes and Challenges
Good condition of manuscripts post-imagingPositive reception from scholars and social-media users
Being new-technology “guinea pigs”Searchable access tool: overcoming the limitations of proprietary interfaces
