The Policy and Standards Division of the Library of Congress has received a revision proposal for the Arabic ALA-LC romanization table from LC's Cairo Office. The proposal chiefly corrects minor romanization errors and adds language that clarifies instructions for non-native English speakers. An example has also been replaced and another removed to better illustrate romanization instructions.
The revision proposal<http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman_arabic_proposal.pdf> < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman_arabic_proposal.pdf > (PDF, 145 KB) highlights all additions and changes. A separate document<http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman_arabic_explanation.pdf> < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman_arabic_explanation.pdf > (PDF, 147 KB) enumerates changes in the revision proposal.
Comments on this proposed revision may be sent to Bruce Johnson in LC's Policy and Standards Division (bjoh(a)loc.gov<mailto:bjoh@loc.gov>) no later than September 7, 2012.
Bruce Chr. Johnson
The Library of Congress
Policy & Standards Division
Washington, DC 20540-4263 USA
bjoh(a)loc.gov<mailto:bjoh@loc.gov>
www.loc.gov<http://www.loc.gov/>
202.707.1652 (voice)
202.707.1334 (fax)
Proposal for Manchu Romanization Table
6/7/12
A proposal for a Manchu romanization table was developed in 1998 by Wayne Richter of Western Washington University and circulated in CSB 83. No further action was taken at that time. The Policy and Standards Division is interested in completing work on this table and it is available for review at Manchu Romanization<http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/manchu.pdf> < http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/manchu.pdf > [PDF, 165 KB].
Comments on this proposed romanization table may be sent to Bruce Johnson, Policy and Standards Division (bjoh(a)loc.gov<mailto:bjoh@loc.gov>) by September 7, 2012.
Bruce Chr. Johnson
The Library of Congress
Policy & Standards Division
Washington, DC 20540-4263 USA
bjoh(a)loc.gov<mailto:bjoh@loc.gov>
www.loc.gov<http://www.loc.gov/>
202.707.1652 (voice)
202.707.1334 (fax)
St. Catherine's Monastery of the Sinai Palimpsests Survey
http://emelibrary.org/projects.htm
St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai, Egypt
In cooperation with His Eminence Archbishop Damianos of Sinai and with
generous support from Arcadia, a London-based foundation, EMEL will
field a scientific team to St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai,
home of the world’s oldest library, to work with the Father Justin,
Monastery Librarian, to:
Study the reflective qualities of palimpsests in the monastery
library (how the inks and parchment of these manuscripts reflect
different wavelengths of light).
Demonstrate the feasibility of using multi-spectral imaging and
related technologies to recover the erased texts on these palimpsests.
Palimpsests are recycled manuscripts. Frugal medieval scribes would
scrape an old manuscript to remove the ink and write new text over the
old. The erased layers of writing can preserve texts from antiquity
that survive in no other form. Built in the 6th century, St.
Catherine’s holds 120 known palimpsests that contain classical,
Christian and Jewish texts in Greek, Syriac, Georgian, Armenian,
Arabic, and other languages. Only three of these palimpsests have
been extensively studied, and all three contain erased texts from the
4th-7th centuries.
The survey will advance our scientific understanding of palimpsests by
studying how palimpsests with inks and parchments of different
chemical compositions reflect different wavelengths of light. This
information will assist libraries around the world that hold
palimpsests to design methods to make the erased texts legible again.
St. Catherine’s Monastery holds a large and diverse collection of
palimpsests that provides the optimal conditions for such a survey.
At the conclusion of the survey, EMEL will submit a report to His
Eminence Archbishop Damianos a report that describing the methods by
which the underlying texts can be recovered in service to the
monastery and to scholarship.
Project participants include:
Roger Easton, Professor, Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging
Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York.
Keith Knox, Senior Scientist for Boeing LTS, based in Maui, Hawaii.
William Christens-Barry, Chief Scientist, Equipoise Imaging, LCC,
based in Maryland.
David Cooper, Director of Digital Lightforms, Ltd., U.K.; former
Librarian, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University.
Michael B. Toth, Consultant in Technology Planning and
Integration, R. B. Toth Associates; Project Manager of the Archimedes
Palimpsest Project, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
Michael Phelps, Executive Director, Early Manuscripts Electronic
Library, California.
Technology Development
Next-Generation System for Digitizing Codices
>From fall 2005 through spring 2007, EMEL coordinated an international
working group to design a next-generation system for digitizing
fragile codices that would realize the following priorities:
Support fragile bindings throughout the digitization process.
Achieve best contemporary image standards in terms of spatial
resolution, pixel depth and color fidelity to the original.
Optimize workflow so that large-scale digitization projects are
cost-effective and feasible.
Create a multi-use system capable of digitizing diverse media via
modular design.
Be transportable for projects around the world.
Stokes Imaging of Austin, Texas, is now manufacturing this new system.
Click here for a PDF that describes this next-generation system for
digitizing fragile codices.
The following experts participated in the working group:
David Cooper, formerly of Oxford University, and photographic
consultant to St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai; Father Justin
Sinaites, Librarian of St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai; John R.
Stokes of Stokes Imaging, designer of turnkey systems for large-scale
digitization projects for the U.S. Library of Congress, National
Geographic, and the National Library of Medicine; and John T. Stokes
of Stokes Software, designer of workflow management software for
large-scale digital conversion projects.
Digital Imaging
National Center of Manuscripts, Tbilisi, Georgia
In September 2007, EMEL traveled to Tbilisi to collaborate with
Georgia’s National Center of Manuscripts to digitize a selection of
its most important manuscripts. The Center preserves outstanding
manuscripts in a variety of languages that are the heritage of
Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. This project featured the
digitization of early Georgian manuscripts that originate from St.
Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai.
St. Catherine’s Monastery ‘Diaspora’ Manuscripts Project
EMEL seeks to digitize manuscripts that were once part of the library
of St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai but are now scattered in
libraries around the world. In this way, scholars will be able to
study the history of the world’s oldest continually operating library
and reconstruct the relationships among its manuscripts. As the first
installment of the project, EMEL digitized the Peckover-Foot Codex, a
12th century Greek New Testament manuscript in the Department of
Special Collections, Young Research Library, UCLA.
Strategic Alliances
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
EMEL and Department of Medieval Studies of Aristotle University in
Thessaloniki, Greece, have entered a strategic alliance to develop
projects to digitize collections of Byzantine manuscripts. Prof.
Vasili Katsaros of Aristotle University is exploring project
opportunities in Greece and the Middle East.
Other major projects are in development and will be announced when appropriate.
--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.comhttp://kalamosb.alibrisstore.com/http://www.antiqbook.com/books/bookseller.phtml/kal
