http://emel-library.org/galleries-3/
From the website:
How we work
- EMEL leaders identify manuscripts (or other historical materials),
which are inaccessible to scholars due to geographical, political, or
technological barriers, and develop projects to make them digitally
accessible for study.
- EMEL often leads projects from their start (grant writing) to their
conclusion (publication); or we can provide specialized imaging services
to an existing project.
- EMEL welcomes project proposals and often invites a scholar or scientist to serve as an external project director.
Values we offer
Technological innovation
Overcoming barriers, which render manuscripts inaccessible, can require technological innovation. For example —
•
Many manuscripts are illegible due to damage, deterioration or erasure.
At St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai, EMEL is working with
scientists to improve and expand the methods of spectral imaging used to
recover illegible writing in ancient manuscripts.
•
Limitations of time and money can prevent the digitization of a large
collection of fragile manuscripts. EMEL worked with Stokes Imaging of
Austin to design a computer-controlled cradle, which supports fragile
manuscripts and improves efficiency and lowers costs of digitization.
(See
Next-Generation System.)
Service (“non-acquistiveness”)
EMEL is a service
organization and does not retain copies of the digital images it
creates. Therefore, EMEL can advise a library or museum in how best to
archive and publish images of its holdings without prejudice or
self-interest.
Responsible access
All EMEL projects
seek to balance the interests of the library or museum, which preserves
precious artifacts, with the interests of scholars, who desire access
for study, and foundations, which want the results of funded projects to
be published. Since EMEL projects often cross national, cultural and
ethnic boundaries, each project must identify the optimal balance among
the interests of its stakeholders. We call this “responsible access.”
Collaboration
EMEL projects bring
together various participants, including libraries, museums,
universities, scientists and scholars. EMEL has a strategic alliance
with the UCLA Library and cooperative relationships with West Semitic
Research of USC and with the Lazarus Project of the University of
Mississippi. EMEL welcomes new relationships with educational, cultural,
and religious organizations.
How we are organized
EMEL offers a unique organizational structure to ensure that the
optimal technologies can be implemented at low costs in challenging
environments.
If you look for EMEL’s offices, you won’t find them. EMEL staff and
project personnel collaborate online and meet at project sites. Without
office space and with a small permanent staff, EMEL is a flexible,
dynamic organization with low overhead costs.
Since EMEL assembles a unique team of scientists and scholars for
each project, we are not bound to a single technology, but identify the
optimal technologies for each project.
In all of its projects, EMEL works to enhance the capabilities of the
library or museum, which holds the originals, to facilitate scholarly
access, and to educate the public about the sources for our common
heritage and the efforts made to preserve and record them.
EMEL is a non-profit research and service organization, which welcomes your support.
