Diane Bockrath presentation for "New Voices in the Profession" session at the VRA + ARLIS/NA 2nd Joint Conference in Minneapolis, MN.

1. Parchment to Pixel:
The Walters Islamic
Manuscript Digital Project
Diane E. Bockrath
Digitization Specialist
Department of Manuscripts and
Rare Books
The Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore

2. The Walters Art Museum
Manuscripts & Rare Books
900 illuminated and illustrated medieval
and Islamic manuscripts, both religious
and secular in nature
Second most significant collection in
the Western Hemisphere
A collection of exceptional quality,
containing consummate works of art

3. The Projects
Islamic Manuscript Parchment to Pixel
Digital Project (2010-2012):
(2008-2010): 105 English, Dutch,
128 Islamic codices German, Byzantine,
and 60 loose leaves Armenian, and
Ethiopian codices

4. Digitization Goals
To create full digital surrogates with
accompanying metadata
To release images on a Creative
Commons Attribution Non-
Commercial Share-Alike license
Islamic collection: well conserved,
a cataloging opportunity, and an
area of emerging scholarly interest

7. Digitization Workflow
Conservation Review
Metadata Entry
Image Capture
Verification
Color Correction
Automation
Inspection
Cataloging
Data transfer

8. Metadata
Dublin Core: Embedded in the
header of each master TIFF
(entered prior to imaging)
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI):
Accompanies images as an XML
file (created after imaging)

9. Walters Electronic Cataloging Tool

11. Walters Electronic Cataloging Tool

12. Image Capture

14. Image Capture

15. Image Capture

16. Image Capture

17. Color Correction

18. Quality Control

19. Derivative Images
Master TIFF: 600PPI text folios /
1200PPI illuminated folios
Print Publication TIFF: 300PPI
Web JPEG: 1800-pixel line file
Thumbnail: 190-pxel line file

20. Cataloging

21. The Digital
Collection

22. How can you see the images?
The Digital Walters
Walters Art Museum Web site
Flickr
Twitter
UNESCO World Digital Library
Academic databases: ARTstor,
Digital Scriptorium, Index of
Christian Art (Parchment to Pixel
manuscripts)

23. The Digital Walters:
www.thedigitalwalters.org

24. Walters Art Museum Web Site

25. Flickr:
Walters Art Museum Illuminated
Manuscripts

26. Twitter:
@medievalMss, @WillNoel,
@walters_museum

27. Successes and Challenges
Good condition of Being new-technology
manuscripts post- “guinea pigs”
imaging Searchable access
Positive reception tool: overcoming the
from scholars and limitations of
social-media users proprietary interfaces