Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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The Digital Scriptorium provides access to an onl<strong>in</strong>e image database of medieval and Renaissance
manuscripts from almost 30 libraries and <strong>in</strong>cludes records for 5,300 manuscripts and 24,300 images.
This collection can be browsed by location, shelfmark, author, title, scribe, artist, and language
(<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g 58 Greek manuscripts). Each manuscript record <strong>in</strong>cludes an extensive bibliographic and
physical description, l<strong>in</strong>ks to <strong>in</strong>dividual manuscript pages images (thumbnail, small, medium,
large), 389 and l<strong>in</strong>ks to the fully digitized manuscript at its home <strong>in</strong>stitution (where available). Several
types of search<strong>in</strong>g are available, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g a basic search, a shelfmark search, and an advanced search
where a user can enter multiple keywords (to search the fields shelfmark, author, title, docket,
language, provenance, b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g, caption) with limits by date, decoration, country of orig<strong>in</strong>, and current
location.
An overview of the Digital Scriptorium (DS) and its future has been provided by Consuelo Dutschke
(Dutschke 2008). She articulated how the creation of the DS had made the work of text editors <strong>in</strong>
assembl<strong>in</strong>g a body of evidence much simpler, and that libraries that had chosen to participate had also
made the job of future editors far easier for DS provides a s<strong>in</strong>gle po<strong>in</strong>t of access to the <strong>in</strong>dexed
hold<strong>in</strong>gs of multiple libraries. She also observed that many libraries that had chosen to participate <strong>in</strong>
DS had consequently made a much greater effort to identify their own collections. Even more
important, however, the DS can help editors ga<strong>in</strong> a more complete understand<strong>in</strong>g of the context of the
manuscripts with which they work:
DS also serves the cause of the editor <strong>in</strong> allow<strong>in</strong>g him a first glimpse of the world that a given
manuscript occupies: the other texts with which it circulates; the m<strong>in</strong>iatures, if any, which
always imply <strong>in</strong>terpretation; the level of expense that went <strong>in</strong>to its production; early and late
owners with their notes and their b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs, each br<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g a historical glimpse of that
manuscript's value – both semantic and f<strong>in</strong>ancial – to the whole. Leonard Boyle rem<strong>in</strong>ds us that
no text exists without its physical means of transmission. … and DS significantly aids the
editor <strong>in</strong> build<strong>in</strong>g an understand<strong>in</strong>g of the physical and <strong>in</strong>tellectual environment of the chosen
text (Dutschke 2008).
Dutschke asserted that editors’ understand<strong>in</strong>g would also grow as they could exam<strong>in</strong>e other
manuscripts of the same text or even other manuscripts of different texts but of a similar place and date
of orig<strong>in</strong>. The DS provides access to only some images of manuscripts (an average of six images per
codex) as the costs of full digitization were prohibitive <strong>in</strong> many cases. Nonetheless, it serves as an
important discovery tool for widely scattered collections, Dutschke ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed, s<strong>in</strong>ce for most
researchers it simply matters whether a library has the particular text, author, scribe, or artist that they
are research<strong>in</strong>g.
The DS began <strong>in</strong> 1997 and first established standards for bibliographic data collection and
photographic capture of manuscripts, standards that are iteratively updated. The existence of such
standards, along with documentation, has made it easier for potential collaborators to determ<strong>in</strong>e
whether they wish to jo<strong>in</strong> the DS. This documentation and these standards have proved a crucial
component of technical susta<strong>in</strong>ability, accord<strong>in</strong>g to Dutschke. The other critical element of
susta<strong>in</strong>ability, she po<strong>in</strong>ted out, is f<strong>in</strong>ancial, and the DS is currently tak<strong>in</strong>g steps to ensure the survival
of their digital program for the future. Part of any f<strong>in</strong>ancial susta<strong>in</strong>ability plan, Dutschke expla<strong>in</strong>ed,
was a concrete specification of what is required to keep an organization runn<strong>in</strong>g as well as to keep
down future costs. Some key elements she listed <strong>in</strong>cluded documentation, technological transparency,
389 For example, a large image of a manuscript page of Hero of Alexandria’s Geometrica, http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-b<strong>in</strong>/dloobj=ds.Columbia-
NY.NNC-RBML.6869&size=large