This is a joint project of UCLA and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Assyriologists, curators, and historians of science partnered to digitize and make available the form and content of cuneiform tablets dating from c. 3350 BC to the end of the pre-Christian era. The project is funded by the Digital Library Initiative of the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
Selection Decisions
Of the 500,000 cuneiform exemplars in public and private collections, UCLA estimates that more than 200,000 have been digitized and catalogued by CDLI. The project is aimed at digitizing the largest number of tablets as possible and draws on the collections of over a dozen repositories.
Metadata
Those heading this project are taking steps to make cuneiform more accessible to a wider audience. Part of this mission includes tailoring XML markup descriptions with vector-based image specifications for computer-assisted tablet copies. They will also be opening up Metadata-based lexemical and grammatical analysis of Sumerian to Assyriologists and Sumerologists. Each set of images is accompanied by basic metadata including period, culture, collection, and museum of origin. Users can select to see the full catalog record, and in some cases transliteration is also provided.
Object Characteristics
The tablets have a lot of dimensionality, and have been scanned from all angles. Each object is scanned from every side, for a total of six images that are combined into one image. The images are in jpeg format and of relatively good quality. The digitizers photographed the tablets with angled lighting such that the grooves and marks of the cuneiform are clear.
Audience
They are developing “scalable access systems for a wide array of users, including researchers, museum staff, internet users, and even law enforcement officials.”
Selection Decisions
Of the 500,000 cuneiform exemplars in public and private collections, UCLA estimates that more than 200,000 have been digitized and catalogued by CDLI. The project is aimed at digitizing the largest number of tablets as possible and draws on the collections of over a dozen repositories.
Metadata
Those heading this project are taking steps to make cuneiform more accessible to a wider audience. Part of this mission includes tailoring XML markup descriptions with vector-based image specifications for computer-assisted tablet copies. They will also be opening up Metadata-based lexemical and grammatical analysis of Sumerian to Assyriologists and Sumerologists. Each set of images is accompanied by basic metadata including period, culture, collection, and museum of origin. Users can select to see the full catalog record, and in some cases transliteration is also provided.
Object Characteristics
The tablets have a lot of dimensionality, and have been scanned from all angles. Each object is scanned from every side, for a total of six images that are combined into one image. The images are in jpeg format and of relatively good quality. The digitizers photographed the tablets with angled lighting such that the grooves and marks of the cuneiform are clear.
Audience
They are developing “scalable access systems for a wide array of users, including researchers, museum staff, internet users, and even law enforcement officials.”
No comments:
Post a Comment