proposal part b - The Bernstein Project
proposal part b - The Bernstein Project
proposal part b - The Bernstein Project
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CIP-ICT PSP Call 4 4<br />
Pilot B<br />
[Imperialle]<br />
photographic images, but Imperialle provides the additional possibility of seeing images of the paper<br />
structure.<br />
b) Europeana already provides links to the paper portal <strong>Bernstein</strong> (www.memoryofpaper.eu), where the user<br />
can search for specific paper features, create images thereof and undertake more detailed investigations. In<br />
addition, it is possible for the user to determine the date and origin of paper sheets used by a specific artist<br />
and to search for others that are identical.<br />
c) Finally, the user will be given the possibility to be linked from Europeana to the server of the relevant<br />
content provider in order to get further in-depth information about specific objects.<br />
Technology<br />
<strong>The</strong> individual works will be digitized in two ways: by using reflected light (both verso and recto, if<br />
necessary) and secondly, by transmitted light. <strong>The</strong> first method is the traditional means, already well<br />
established, of digitising art objects, books, and documents. <strong>The</strong> second method digitizes the paper<br />
structures, and in many fields is a rather new technique. <strong>The</strong> specific method used will depend on the<br />
characteristics of the individual objects themselves, as well as the technological capabilities of the various<br />
<strong>part</strong>ners in the project.<br />
<strong>The</strong> digitized works, together with their metadata, will be made available on the servers of the various<br />
content providers. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Bernstein</strong> portal will aggregate the Imperialle data. For this purpose, <strong>Bernstein</strong> will<br />
be given additional search features. <strong>The</strong> various databases are or will be connected with <strong>Bernstein</strong> using<br />
appropriate protocols (e.g. SRU). <strong>The</strong> connection between Europeana and <strong>Bernstein</strong> has already been<br />
implemented by OAI-PMH. <strong>The</strong> existing connections are established, tested, and are functioning well; the<br />
new ones will be implemented accordingly.<br />
Content<br />
<strong>The</strong> term masterpiece is usually associated with the visual arts. <strong>The</strong> Imperialle project aims to overcome<br />
this restriction by targeting masterpieces in other fields as well, including music, literature, architecture,<br />
religion and the natural sciences. <strong>The</strong> digital contents of the Imperialle project will come from institutions<br />
in six different countries. All of these institutions deal with the study and care of masterpieces that have<br />
paper as their carrier, and all are major cultural institutions. <strong>The</strong> materials they will provide can be<br />
classified into the following areas:<br />
Art history: prints and drawings by famous artists such as Rubens, Dürer, Maarten Van Heemskerk, Goya,<br />
Piranesi, and others; Vedute d’Italia (20,000);<br />
Music: scores by Renaissance and Baroque composers, Johann Seb. Bach, Wolfgang A. Mozart;<br />
Architecture: drawings and sketches by Jakob Ignaz Hittorff, the most important Parisian architect of the<br />
19 th century;<br />
Archaeology: drawings by Jean-Baptiste Lepère, who documented Egyptian monuments during Napoleon’s<br />
Egypt campaign;<br />
Natural sciences: the most important medical texts of the 16 th to 18 th century, with illustrations of anatomy,<br />
medical tools and medicinal plants, among them a unique collection of wonderfully illustrated medical<br />
books of the 17 th -18 th century by Giovanni Maria Lancisi;<br />
Religion: masterfully illustrated bibles and religious books from the 15 th to 19 th century in Romanian and<br />
Spanish collections.<br />
Sustainability<br />
All of the content providers are major cultural institutions: museums, libraries, archives, research institutes,<br />
and universities. <strong>The</strong>y all are funded with public money and are obliged to make their work and collections<br />
available to the general public. <strong>The</strong> proposed digitisation is in accordance with the objectives and guiding<br />
principles of these institutions. In addition, high-quality and well-planned digitisation is an important step<br />
towards the preservation of cultural heritage altogether. This is why all <strong>part</strong>icipants in the Imperialle project<br />
plan to maintain and keep the service running. <strong>The</strong>y also plan to continue digitising their material after the<br />
project has ended, since it lies within their own interests and goals. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Bernstein</strong> portal, which will<br />
function as an aggregator for Imperialle, is currently maintained, serviced and updated by the Austrian<br />
Academy of Sciences. This will continue to be the case in the foreseeable future.<br />
Ownership<br />
<strong>The</strong> owner, provider, and maintainer of the digitised data are the content providers themselves who own the<br />
masterpieces. <strong>The</strong> digitised data will be made available on servers of the content providers with the<br />
possibility for Europeana to harvest the metadata via the <strong>Bernstein</strong> portal.<br />
Other