Digital Library Digest: June 22, 2012

Balinese digitization project moves to next phase of preservation

“After digitizing 3,000 lontar (palmyra leaf) manuscripts and uploading them onto the website of the Internet Archive Foundation Digital Library, it is high time for the Indonesian government, the Balinese provincial administration, local and international donor agencies to support the next phase of the lontar preservation project.

“’We have already finished digitizing and uploading 3,000 lontar collections from the library of the Bali Cultural office. That is the first step. For the next step, we would like to make translations of the lontar because they are still written in the old Javanese Kawi language,’ explained Ron Jenkins, professor of theater at Wesleyan University, during the discussion on Friday.

“He said the team would like to find support to continue the project by transcribing and translating some of the most important lontar into Balinese, Indonesian and English, so that they can be accessed by more of the population in Indonesia and internationally. Writing the lontar manuscripts is an ancient Balinese tradition and one of its most significant pieces of literary heritage. The ancient literary texts were mostly recorded on dried, treated palm leaves and composed in the old Javanese language of Kawi and Sanskrit.”

From Ni Komang Erviani’s article in the Jakarta Post, Govt, donors urged to support lontar preservation

How the power of technology may revolutionize the way the humanities are taught and understood

“‘Computing is not the box in front of you or me. It’s an idea which has as many variation as the human imagination is capable of. But we really don’t understand what it is. It’s part of how we think about the world, it’s part of how we think about ourselves. These questions are why it makes sense to have a digital humanities.’”

“As new generations of scholars grow to professional adulthood with digital humanities as part of their toolkit, it may cease to exist as a separate discipline. In the same way that the tools of Imagism invigorated modern poetry, but ceased to remain viable as a school, humanities may be given a rush of blood to the head by the use of digital tools and processes, but eventually stop considering it a separate practice.”

From Curt Hopkins’ article in Ars Technica, Future U: Rise of the Digital Humanities

New Books at JSTOR program slated to launch in November

“JSTOR is pleased to announce that Books at JSTOR will be live in November 2012. Books at JSTOR will feature more than 14,000 scholarly monographs from leading academic presses, and will be fully integrated with the more than 1,600 current and archival journals on JSTOR, including links to and from book reviews.

“Books at JSTOR will feature front- and backlist books available for purchase as individual titles. All books will be available in a single concurrent user model, and many will be in an unlimited user model.”

From Sue Polanka’s post on the blog No Shelf Required, Books at JSTOR to launch in November

University presses hop aboard MyiLibrary e-book platform

“With more than 250,000 titles covering all major disciplines, Ingram’s MyiLibrary platform is the fastest growing online e-book aggregation platform for libraries. The platform offers libraries the flexibility to acquire and access content on individual title, publisher-specific, or subject collection level based on unique requirements and resources. Almost one thousand titles have been added from the most recent presses using the platform.

“’At Ingram, we’re seeing a notable surge in the adoption and offering of e-books through our MyiLibrary e-book platform,’ said Rich Rosy, Vice President and General Manager, Ingram Content Group library services. ‘We’re pleased to add more content from the world’s leading University Presses to our selection – using MyiLibrary, publishers are expanding the reach of content to the many libraries that are developing digital programs to meet the changing content needs of their patrons.’”

From Paul Biba’s article in TeleRead, 7 university presses add content to Intram MyiLibrary ebook platform