Digitization of Manuscripts for Cultural Heritage: A Proposal to initiate digitization Project in Haryana
*Dr. Ashutosh Angiras & ** Raj Kumar Bhardwaj
Abstract
In this article emphasizes on what is digitization and cultural Heritage, work related to manuscripts, what are the approaches of digitization and various issues related to digitization. Planning also covered which include the how to identify the manuscripts, classification and use of metadata and selection of hardware/software, media to store the digital contents. In the end a proposal to initiate the manuscripts digitization project in Haryana is also covered in this article.
Introduction:
Undoubtedly India has the richest collection of manuscripts in the world but today this
collection is facing the threat of survival due to any concrete policy and now the question
raise of survival in the state of Haryana .The invaluable heritage of culture in Haryana has to
be documented, preserved and should accessible to all. In this article we have concentrate on
the digitization and cultural heritage so we must understand what is digitization and cultural
Heritage?
Digitization means acquiring, converting, storing and providing information in a computer format that is standardized, organized and available from common system.
Culture and Culture Heritage:-
Cultural Heritage: E.B.Taylor first defined Culture, back in 1871 as including “knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”
Encyclopedia Britannica defined Culture as “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behaviors’’
Culture Heritage denote the means through which cultural knowledge is transmitted, Culture refer to the system in which one lives and heritage is that which is transmitted.
Culture is present and culture heritage is historical “By taking a culture and handing it down to future generation”
Work related to Manuscripts:
a) Genetic Study: -This study is concern with graphical, textual contents of manuscript
b) Critical Publishing is about publishing after critical analysis of contents given in the manuscripts
c) Translation and transliteration is concerned with translate the matter given and same as transliteration.
d) Conversion from one format to other means print format to digital format or any other
e) Publishing on the web or preserve in storage media is all about launch it on the web and preserve it on CD-ROM or any other media.
*H.O.D Sanskrit Deptt.and **Librarian S.D College (Lahore) Ambala Cantt-133001
Approaches to Digital Preservation: –
· Science Data
· Library Initiatives
· Initiatives by archival Institutions
· Harvesting the Web
Issues Related to Digitization: - We have so many issues when we initiate the digitization process but the most important issues are managerial, financial, technical and Human Resources.
Managerial Issues: -Most basic question raise before undertaking digitization process is whether there is need for it or not. So the first and foremost task is to make a feasibility study before embarking any digitization process. We have to find out what users expect and hope for from digitization process. Once the users needs are clearly understood the aim of the project can be established and match with an appropriate workflow procedure, budget and timescale. Risk management is also come under managerial isues. Selection and identification, copy right, quality control are also come under managerial issue
Financial Issues: -Digitization Process is very much costly that is why we are lacking behind in digitization it include manpower cost, process cost and over head cost. So we have to keep in mind financial issues to successfully completion of project.
Technical issues: - In order to digitize rare material huge technical infrastructure are required, in technical issues we have to consider what is the hardware requirement, software require, storage requirements, file formats and access but w must keep in mind in h/w and software selection that software selection should be first software then hardware.
Digital camera and scanner: -Digital Camera is often used in digitize over sized material, bound volume and artifact camera are of two types based on resolution and cost. Low-resolution digital cameras are inexpensive than high resolution. Highly resolution camera is costly but best to digitize special collection but scanner we have to select after evaluating after resolution, speed, can size, optical density etc.
Server: In digitization process a powerful server is required and should equipped with CD-R-writer ets. Server price are start from thousand to lacks of rupees so we have to decide as per our requirement and keep in mind of Finance.
Software Requirement:- Capture Software is bundled with most of the scanner but it should be as which we could customize as per our requirement. Few image capturing software like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Image has both the capacity. Now the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) convert image into text, pdf file which could be searched.
After selection image editing and capture we have to select a retrieval tool, it should as which could work on standalone and on the web also. Many commercial and open source software are available in the market i.e. Alchemy, Content OM, Imara are very famous commercial packages-Space and Greenstone are some famous open source software.
Human Resource: -No doubt human resources are backbone of any digitization activity. Proper human resource management is vital for launching and sustainability of digitization project. Before start any digitization project we must have proper manpower planning so that we could manage project very well, proper manpower include identification of job, jobs analysis, job description and job assessment. So we have to classify our human resources as a
a) Managerial Staff
b) Technical Staff
c) Operational Staff.
Proposal to initiate Digitization Project in Haryana:In haryana many manuscripts are available which are very important to save cultural heritage In studying of the sphere of knowledge and. Its’ contribution to Indian society, the importance of language factor can hardly be minimized. The language is the greatest and the oldest preserver of knowledge. In early period of human history, since the man developed his thoughts for the society and literature, the man tried to adopt the particular media for expressing his thoughts, so that the others could also make use of it. In wake of this feeling the man tried to be civilized and thus he came to a conclusion of expressing his ideas through oral and writing traditions. With the advancement of time and the complex structure of the society, it was hard for one man to remember all the detailed facts and their necessary things, which might be of importance. Thus, he preferred that some particular persons should be given the charge of remembering the events of knowledge and the tradition. The tradition of acquiring knowledge about the phenomena, existing in nature, existed in the dawn of civilizations and thus memory, rook inscriptions, metal- plates, cloth, bhurja-patra, paper etc. all means were employed for the purpose of registering and preservation of all readable materials for the sake of its usages in future. Thus preservation of all readable material generated the idea of constructing the libraries, and thus the libraries came into the being, the modern libraries are just the advanced stage of the libraries that existed before.
We propose to study the problem four projects under the following aspects:
(a) Nature of knowledge and the need of its preservation,
(b) Means of preservation of knowledge:
(B1) Contributions of the sacred languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Apbharnsha.
(B2) Scripts (like Brahmin Karachi, Nagari etc.) as the means of preservation,
(B3) Educational system as means of preservation of knowledge, (c) Religion and
Philosophy as means of preservation of knowledge,
(d) Arts as means of preservation of knowledge.
(e) Establishment of libraries in ancient India,
(f) Technology as means of preservation of cultural heritage.
As we all know, there were two main streams of the tradition of the knowledge, which kept flowing for centuries i.e. the “Para Vidya (knowledge of Brahman and Atman) and Apara (the knowledge of sciences and arts). The individuals and gurukuls keep the tradition of the Para and Apara alive in Haryana in the form of learning process of the Mantras, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, philosophical thoughts and sutras (like Sankhya yoga, Nyaaya Vaisheshika, and the purva-mimansa and Uttar-mimansa), writings of the saints and modern spiritual and theological writings. Sometimes the total traditions of knowledge of India is divided in to two parts -“the Shruti”-what is heard and spoken and-the smritis”-what is remembered. This division is equally important as it separates the canonical literature of infallible revelation from the traditional literature based on the memory of the world, but on the whole, the main spring of all kind of knowledge of para- Apara and “Shruti-Smriti” is the Veda, which provides the imaginative insight through its hymns and the ritual experience of the sacrifice (Yajna) through its Brahmans and Upanishads texts. Thus the poetic, the sacrificial and intellectual experiences of the ancient Indian mind constitutes the locus of the tradition of knowledge in the original concept of “Brahman” and ‘Yajna” (sacrifice) occupy the central place in the Vedas as “Being” occupies the central place in the Greek thought, The theory of knowledge has acquired special importance in Indian philosophy in the ancient period, particularly in the philosophies of Nyaya, Sankhya Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, from the very beginning of the different systems of Indian thoughts until recent times discussion on the problems of knowledge have formed, an essential part of the tradition. It is needless to say that both the traditions of Para and Apra knowledge’s strived to preserve the knowledge acquired by the generations of India in their own way through the medium of logical and scientific approach. They developed the Gurukulas, libraries, writing material and the relationship of Guru-Shishya –the teacher and that taught. In our view, the Indians succeeded in preserving lot of their traditional knowledge without exhausting their zeal for Knowledge.
This Indian tradition of knowledge passed on in its own large and leisurely manner through different stages. Its first period was that of the great spiritual out-flowering in which the forms were simple, flexible and freely responsive to its essential spirit. That fluid moment passed away in to an age of strong intellectuality in which all was fixed in to distinct complex and finally the hard binding of the set forms over-powered and at last there was a decline of the inspiring spirit, a stagnation of living force, a progressive decay of the outward structure. If we have to understand the essential spirit of the Indian tradition of knowledge and want to preserve it then we must enter in to global expansion of vision of technology, then we are faced with the higher levels of development of the man and the machine. And in this larger world of mankind, the multiple scientific and humanist traditions implicate each other, complete each other as each has a universal mission to develop, transfer and preserve knowledge for the mankind. The awareness of the universal context of the human experience, man’s knowledge of the past and his way into the future — all these are the direct results of contemporary scientific and the humanist development of the man.
Since geographical conditions of a race or a nation or a state have a very significant role in making of any cultural tradition, therefore, we must explore the relationship of knowledge with culture. The cultural realm consists of language, philosophy, the religion, the values and the ideology and contains the peculiar rules, which are applicable in all walks of life i.e. “Every acquisition of man which makes him a social being is termed as culture. Thus the culture provides the society a certain guideline on which one can act upon. As the culture is a social heritage of the society so it manifests itself through the language or characteristics of the natives. The culture in the context of Haryana is also employed in the same meaning .So for this reason the Haryanvi culture must not be studied as the fixed and integrated body of the doctrines, but as ever developing tradition that has changed considerably throughout the centuries and which is still in the process of changing in the creative direction, but the basic unity is the unity of a changing life process and not the unity of a fixed pattern. Even though the Haryanavi civilization is thoroughly a historical process, but up to the last few years, there was no thorough understanding of Haryanavi culture and tradition except which was based on the development as process that has been taking place in India during the whole of India’s recorded and unrecorded history.
In view of the preservation of ancient Indian Knowledge, though essential question remains open whether the future hope of the race lies in the rational and an intelligently mechanized way or in the spiritual, intuitive and the religious civilization and the culture but for the moment, let us stick to the issue of digitization as a process of preservation of knowledge in haryana.
From this point onwards, I request my honorable colleague Dr. R.K. Bhardwaj to take over the topic.
Step by Step planning: -In Harayna we will have step by step planning because here we have not only Digitize the manuscripts but also to find out where manuscripts are available in Haryana and its possible only after structured planning. Some important step of proposed project are as under: -
1 Identification of Manuscripts Announcement
2 Appointment of Presiding office at identified site
3 Coordination among subject experts Library experts
Technical Experts
Language Experts
4 Pannning for project given in figure 1.1
5 Launch it on the web with network
6 Dissemination of Information e-mail, seminar, conference
Planning of Manuscripts Digitization: -
Workflow
Finance
Integration
Scope
Scope
Identification of manuscripts
Classification of Identified Manuscripts
Metadata Process
Selection of Hardware and software
Digitization process
Storage in CD-ROM or any media
Publishing of the web
Registration on NDLM
Quality
Human Resources
Finance
Storage
Risk Management
Communication
Time
Sustainability
Figure1.1
Manuscripts Management at S.D. College (Lahore) Library:-In our we have just started digitization and management of manuscripts with open source software. We gave a subject heading with the help of controlled vocabulary so that library readers could easily find out what is available in library. We have given a facility to our students to find out manuscripts with single words and author of the manuscripts and subject and keywords.
*Dr. Ashutosh Angiras & ** Raj Kumar Bhardwaj
Abstract
In this article emphasizes on what is digitization and cultural Heritage, work related to manuscripts, what are the approaches of digitization and various issues related to digitization. Planning also covered which include the how to identify the manuscripts, classification and use of metadata and selection of hardware/software, media to store the digital contents. In the end a proposal to initiate the manuscripts digitization project in Haryana is also covered in this article.
Introduction:
Undoubtedly India has the richest collection of manuscripts in the world but today this
collection is facing the threat of survival due to any concrete policy and now the question
raise of survival in the state of Haryana .The invaluable heritage of culture in Haryana has to
be documented, preserved and should accessible to all. In this article we have concentrate on
the digitization and cultural heritage so we must understand what is digitization and cultural
Heritage?
Digitization means acquiring, converting, storing and providing information in a computer format that is standardized, organized and available from common system.
Culture and Culture Heritage:-
Cultural Heritage: E.B.Taylor first defined Culture, back in 1871 as including “knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”
Encyclopedia Britannica defined Culture as “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behaviors’’
Culture Heritage denote the means through which cultural knowledge is transmitted, Culture refer to the system in which one lives and heritage is that which is transmitted.
Culture is present and culture heritage is historical “By taking a culture and handing it down to future generation”
Work related to Manuscripts:
a) Genetic Study: -This study is concern with graphical, textual contents of manuscript
b) Critical Publishing is about publishing after critical analysis of contents given in the manuscripts
c) Translation and transliteration is concerned with translate the matter given and same as transliteration.
d) Conversion from one format to other means print format to digital format or any other
e) Publishing on the web or preserve in storage media is all about launch it on the web and preserve it on CD-ROM or any other media.
*H.O.D Sanskrit Deptt.and **Librarian S.D College (Lahore) Ambala Cantt-133001
Approaches to Digital Preservation: –
· Science Data
· Library Initiatives
· Initiatives by archival Institutions
· Harvesting the Web
Issues Related to Digitization: - We have so many issues when we initiate the digitization process but the most important issues are managerial, financial, technical and Human Resources.
Managerial Issues: -Most basic question raise before undertaking digitization process is whether there is need for it or not. So the first and foremost task is to make a feasibility study before embarking any digitization process. We have to find out what users expect and hope for from digitization process. Once the users needs are clearly understood the aim of the project can be established and match with an appropriate workflow procedure, budget and timescale. Risk management is also come under managerial isues. Selection and identification, copy right, quality control are also come under managerial issue
Financial Issues: -Digitization Process is very much costly that is why we are lacking behind in digitization it include manpower cost, process cost and over head cost. So we have to keep in mind financial issues to successfully completion of project.
Technical issues: - In order to digitize rare material huge technical infrastructure are required, in technical issues we have to consider what is the hardware requirement, software require, storage requirements, file formats and access but w must keep in mind in h/w and software selection that software selection should be first software then hardware.
Digital camera and scanner: -Digital Camera is often used in digitize over sized material, bound volume and artifact camera are of two types based on resolution and cost. Low-resolution digital cameras are inexpensive than high resolution. Highly resolution camera is costly but best to digitize special collection but scanner we have to select after evaluating after resolution, speed, can size, optical density etc.
Server: In digitization process a powerful server is required and should equipped with CD-R-writer ets. Server price are start from thousand to lacks of rupees so we have to decide as per our requirement and keep in mind of Finance.
Software Requirement:- Capture Software is bundled with most of the scanner but it should be as which we could customize as per our requirement. Few image capturing software like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Image has both the capacity. Now the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) convert image into text, pdf file which could be searched.
After selection image editing and capture we have to select a retrieval tool, it should as which could work on standalone and on the web also. Many commercial and open source software are available in the market i.e. Alchemy, Content OM, Imara are very famous commercial packages-Space and Greenstone are some famous open source software.
Human Resource: -No doubt human resources are backbone of any digitization activity. Proper human resource management is vital for launching and sustainability of digitization project. Before start any digitization project we must have proper manpower planning so that we could manage project very well, proper manpower include identification of job, jobs analysis, job description and job assessment. So we have to classify our human resources as a
a) Managerial Staff
b) Technical Staff
c) Operational Staff.
Proposal to initiate Digitization Project in Haryana:In haryana many manuscripts are available which are very important to save cultural heritage In studying of the sphere of knowledge and. Its’ contribution to Indian society, the importance of language factor can hardly be minimized. The language is the greatest and the oldest preserver of knowledge. In early period of human history, since the man developed his thoughts for the society and literature, the man tried to adopt the particular media for expressing his thoughts, so that the others could also make use of it. In wake of this feeling the man tried to be civilized and thus he came to a conclusion of expressing his ideas through oral and writing traditions. With the advancement of time and the complex structure of the society, it was hard for one man to remember all the detailed facts and their necessary things, which might be of importance. Thus, he preferred that some particular persons should be given the charge of remembering the events of knowledge and the tradition. The tradition of acquiring knowledge about the phenomena, existing in nature, existed in the dawn of civilizations and thus memory, rook inscriptions, metal- plates, cloth, bhurja-patra, paper etc. all means were employed for the purpose of registering and preservation of all readable materials for the sake of its usages in future. Thus preservation of all readable material generated the idea of constructing the libraries, and thus the libraries came into the being, the modern libraries are just the advanced stage of the libraries that existed before.
We propose to study the problem four projects under the following aspects:
(a) Nature of knowledge and the need of its preservation,
(b) Means of preservation of knowledge:
(B1) Contributions of the sacred languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Apbharnsha.
(B2) Scripts (like Brahmin Karachi, Nagari etc.) as the means of preservation,
(B3) Educational system as means of preservation of knowledge, (c) Religion and
Philosophy as means of preservation of knowledge,
(d) Arts as means of preservation of knowledge.
(e) Establishment of libraries in ancient India,
(f) Technology as means of preservation of cultural heritage.
As we all know, there were two main streams of the tradition of the knowledge, which kept flowing for centuries i.e. the “Para Vidya (knowledge of Brahman and Atman) and Apara (the knowledge of sciences and arts). The individuals and gurukuls keep the tradition of the Para and Apara alive in Haryana in the form of learning process of the Mantras, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, philosophical thoughts and sutras (like Sankhya yoga, Nyaaya Vaisheshika, and the purva-mimansa and Uttar-mimansa), writings of the saints and modern spiritual and theological writings. Sometimes the total traditions of knowledge of India is divided in to two parts -“the Shruti”-what is heard and spoken and-the smritis”-what is remembered. This division is equally important as it separates the canonical literature of infallible revelation from the traditional literature based on the memory of the world, but on the whole, the main spring of all kind of knowledge of para- Apara and “Shruti-Smriti” is the Veda, which provides the imaginative insight through its hymns and the ritual experience of the sacrifice (Yajna) through its Brahmans and Upanishads texts. Thus the poetic, the sacrificial and intellectual experiences of the ancient Indian mind constitutes the locus of the tradition of knowledge in the original concept of “Brahman” and ‘Yajna” (sacrifice) occupy the central place in the Vedas as “Being” occupies the central place in the Greek thought, The theory of knowledge has acquired special importance in Indian philosophy in the ancient period, particularly in the philosophies of Nyaya, Sankhya Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, from the very beginning of the different systems of Indian thoughts until recent times discussion on the problems of knowledge have formed, an essential part of the tradition. It is needless to say that both the traditions of Para and Apra knowledge’s strived to preserve the knowledge acquired by the generations of India in their own way through the medium of logical and scientific approach. They developed the Gurukulas, libraries, writing material and the relationship of Guru-Shishya –the teacher and that taught. In our view, the Indians succeeded in preserving lot of their traditional knowledge without exhausting their zeal for Knowledge.
This Indian tradition of knowledge passed on in its own large and leisurely manner through different stages. Its first period was that of the great spiritual out-flowering in which the forms were simple, flexible and freely responsive to its essential spirit. That fluid moment passed away in to an age of strong intellectuality in which all was fixed in to distinct complex and finally the hard binding of the set forms over-powered and at last there was a decline of the inspiring spirit, a stagnation of living force, a progressive decay of the outward structure. If we have to understand the essential spirit of the Indian tradition of knowledge and want to preserve it then we must enter in to global expansion of vision of technology, then we are faced with the higher levels of development of the man and the machine. And in this larger world of mankind, the multiple scientific and humanist traditions implicate each other, complete each other as each has a universal mission to develop, transfer and preserve knowledge for the mankind. The awareness of the universal context of the human experience, man’s knowledge of the past and his way into the future — all these are the direct results of contemporary scientific and the humanist development of the man.
Since geographical conditions of a race or a nation or a state have a very significant role in making of any cultural tradition, therefore, we must explore the relationship of knowledge with culture. The cultural realm consists of language, philosophy, the religion, the values and the ideology and contains the peculiar rules, which are applicable in all walks of life i.e. “Every acquisition of man which makes him a social being is termed as culture. Thus the culture provides the society a certain guideline on which one can act upon. As the culture is a social heritage of the society so it manifests itself through the language or characteristics of the natives. The culture in the context of Haryana is also employed in the same meaning .So for this reason the Haryanvi culture must not be studied as the fixed and integrated body of the doctrines, but as ever developing tradition that has changed considerably throughout the centuries and which is still in the process of changing in the creative direction, but the basic unity is the unity of a changing life process and not the unity of a fixed pattern. Even though the Haryanavi civilization is thoroughly a historical process, but up to the last few years, there was no thorough understanding of Haryanavi culture and tradition except which was based on the development as process that has been taking place in India during the whole of India’s recorded and unrecorded history.
In view of the preservation of ancient Indian Knowledge, though essential question remains open whether the future hope of the race lies in the rational and an intelligently mechanized way or in the spiritual, intuitive and the religious civilization and the culture but for the moment, let us stick to the issue of digitization as a process of preservation of knowledge in haryana.
From this point onwards, I request my honorable colleague Dr. R.K. Bhardwaj to take over the topic.
Step by Step planning: -In Harayna we will have step by step planning because here we have not only Digitize the manuscripts but also to find out where manuscripts are available in Haryana and its possible only after structured planning. Some important step of proposed project are as under: -
1 Identification of Manuscripts Announcement
2 Appointment of Presiding office at identified site
3 Coordination among subject experts Library experts
Technical Experts
Language Experts
4 Pannning for project given in figure 1.1
5 Launch it on the web with network
6 Dissemination of Information e-mail, seminar, conference
Planning of Manuscripts Digitization: -
Workflow
Finance
Integration
Scope
Scope
Identification of manuscripts
Classification of Identified Manuscripts
Metadata Process
Selection of Hardware and software
Digitization process
Storage in CD-ROM or any media
Publishing of the web
Registration on NDLM
Quality
Human Resources
Finance
Storage
Risk Management
Communication
Time
Sustainability
Figure1.1
Manuscripts Management at S.D. College (Lahore) Library:-In our we have just started digitization and management of manuscripts with open source software. We gave a subject heading with the help of controlled vocabulary so that library readers could easily find out what is available in library. We have given a facility to our students to find out manuscripts with single words and author of the manuscripts and subject and keywords.
References: -
1 Goetz, Philip (Ed) New Encyclopedia 15 th Ed., William Benton, Chicago, 1974,pp364-67
2 Dyon, Peter.Pocket Dictionary 2 Ed., BPB Publication, 1996
1 Goetz, Philip (Ed) New Encyclopedia 15 th Ed., William Benton, Chicago, 1974,pp364-67
2 Dyon, Peter.Pocket Dictionary 2 Ed., BPB Publication, 1996
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