[Scriptoris] Fw: [Scribes] FW: Vatican Library 's Manuscript Digitaztion Project

[Hillary Greenslade]

Forwarded,  I wonder if they are working with the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library at the St. Johns University up in Michigan; 
seems like they are not, based on the comments in the letter.  Either way, it's very cool and can't wait to see the results.  
Hillary



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Christine Krebs <dancingkatz at att.net>
To: spot at midrealm.org; whills at midrealm.org; sca-middle at midrealm.org; scribes at castle.org
Sent: Wed, March 24, 2010 8:38:46 AM
Subject: [Scribes] FW: Vatican Library 's Manuscript Digitaztion Project

I just received the attached newsletter in this morning's email and wanted
to share the news. The Vatican library's manuscript collection is finally
going to be digitized! 

I think I'm not the only scribe who thinks this is a wonderful thing. J
Edlyn de Meadowburne
Winged Hills

From: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana [mailto:webmaster at vatlib.it] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:26 AM
To: Christine KREBS
Subject: Vatican Library - Newsletter 5/2010

<http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?ling=eng> Vatican Library

Vatican City, march 24, 2010
Newsletter 5/2010

Dear Friends and readers,
The Osservatore Romano dated March 24 has published the following story
which we felt certain would be of interest to you.
I am sending it as an "extraordinary Newsletter", to which I add my very
best wishes for a blessed Easter. 

Msgr. Cesare Pasini
Prefect 

An initiative of the Vatican Library Digital manuscripts
Cesare Pasini 

The digitization of 80,000 manuscripts of the Vatican Library, it should be
realized, is not a light-hearted project. Even with only a rough calculation
one can foresee the need to reproduce 40 million pages with a mountain of
computer data, to the order of 45 petabytes (that is, 45 million billion
bytes). This obviously means pages variously written and illustrated or
annotated, to be photographed with the highest definition, to include the
greatest amount of data and avoid having to repeat the immense undertaking
in the future.

And these are delicate manuscripts, to be treated with care, without causing
them damage of any kind. A great undertaking for the benefit of culture and
in particular for the preservation and conservation of the patrimony
entrusted to the Apostolic Library, in the tradition of a cultural service
that the Holy See continues to express and develop through the centuries,
adapting its commitment and energy to the possibilities offered by new
technologies.

The technological project of digitization with its various aspects is now
ready. In the past two years, a technical feasibility study has been
prepared with the contribution of the best experts, internal, external and
also international. This resulted in a project of a great and innovative
value from various points of view: the realization of the photography, the
electronic formats for conservation, the guaranteed stability of photographs
over time, the maintenance and management of the archives, and so forth.

This project may be achieved over a span of 10 years divided into three
phases, with possible intervals between them. In a preliminary phase the
involvement of 60 people is planned, including photographers and
conservator-verifiers, in the second and third phases at least 120. Before
being able to initiate an undertaking of this kind, which is causing some
anxiety to those in charge of the library (and not only to them!), naturally
it will be necessary to find the funds. Moves have already been made in this
direction with some positive results.

The second announcement is that some weeks ago the "test bed" was set up; in
other words the "bench test" that will make it possible to try out and
examine the whole structure of the important project that has been studied
and formulated so as to guarantee that it will function properly when
undertaken in its full breadth.

The work of reproduction uses two different machines, depending on the
different types of material to be reproduced: one is a Metis Systems
scanner, kindly lent to us free of charge by the manufacturers, and a 50
megapixel Hasselblad digital camera. Digitized images will be converted to
the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS), a non-proprietary format, is
extremely simple, was developed a few decades ago by NASA. It has been used
for more than 40 years for the conservation of data concerning spatial
missions and, in the past decade, in astrophysics and nuclear medicine. It
permits the conservation of images with neither technical nor financial
problems in the future, since it is systematically updated by the
international scientific community.

In addition to the servers that collect the images in FITS format
accumulated by the two machines mentioned, another two servers have been
installed to process the data to make it possible to search for images both
by the shelf mark and the manuscript's descriptive elements, and also and
above all by a graphic pattern, that is, by looking for similar images
(graphic or figurative) in the entire digital memory. 

The latter instrument, truly innovative and certainly interesting for all
who intend to undertake research on the Vatican's manuscripts - only think
of when it will be possible to do such research on the entire patrimony of
manuscripts in the Library! - was developed from the technology of the
Autonomy Systems company, a leading English firm in the field of computer
science, to which, moreover, we owe the entire funding of the "test bed".

For this "bench test", set up in these weeks, 23 manuscripts are being used
for a total of 7,500 digitized and indexed pages, with a mountain of
computer data of about 5 terabytes (about 5,000 billion bytes).

The image of the mustard seed springs to mind: the "text bed" is not much
more in comparison with the immensity of the overall project. But we know
well that this seed contains an immense energy that will enable it to grow,
to become far larger than the other plants and to give hospitality to the
birds of the air. In accepting the promise guaranteed in the parable, let us
also give hope of it to those who await the results of this project's
realization. 

Unsubscribe from the newsletter of the Vatican Library Click
<http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=delnewsletter&noemail=christine.k
rebs at wright.edu&ling=eng>  HERE

Subscribe to the private area of the Vatican Library Click
<http://www.vaticanlibrary.va/home.php?pag=iscrizione&ling=eng>  HERE

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