Google launches Dead Sea Scrolls online library

More than six decades since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls — and thousands of years after they were written — Israel on Tuesday put 5,000 images of the ancient biblical artifacts online in a partnership with Google.

The digital library contains the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the second listing of the Ten Commandments, and a portion of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, dated to the first century B.C.

Israeli officials said this is part of an attempt by the custodians of the celebrated manuscripts — often criticized for allowing them to be monopolized by small circles of scholars — to make them broadly available.

"Only five conservators worldwide are authorized to handle the Dead Sea Scrolls," said Shuka Dorfman, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority. "Now, everyone can touch the scroll on screen around the globe."

Last year, Google partnered with the Israel Museum to put five scrolls online.

The scrolls, considered one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century, are thought to have been written or collected by an ascetic Jewish sect that fled Jerusalem to the desert 2,000 years ago and settled at Qumran, near the shore of the Dead Sea. The hundreds of manuscripts found in caves near the site have shed light on the development of the Hebrew Bible and the origins of Christianity.

Google says the new digital library took two years to assemble, using technology first developed by NASA. The multimedia website allows users to zoom in on various fragments, with translations and Google maps alongside.

Google hopes to further expand its project. Two months ago Google launched a "Cultural Institute," a digital visual archive of historical events in cooperation with 17 museums and institutes around the world.

"We're working to bring important cultural and historical materials online and help preserve them for future generations," said Yossi Matias, head of Google's Research and Development Center in Israel. "Our partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority is another step toward enabling users to enjoy cultural material around the world."

Online: www.deadseascrolls.org.il

Harvard’s Alternative to Google Books.

Universities launch a digital public library.

In 2004, Google decided to seek out millions of books gathering dust in library stacks, digitize them, and make them available to you at the click of a mouse. All you had to do was notice the advertisements in the margins.

But after Google extended its archiving effort from books in the public domain to those under copyright, the U.S.-based Authors Guild filed a class action lawsuit in 2005. Then, while negotiating a settlement, Google decided to sell not merely ads but the books themselves, with or without the specific consent of copyright holders, on the ground that the guild could stand in as their legal representative.

Not so fast, said federal judge Denny Chin, as he rejected one Guild-Google settlement after another. And as the case went forward, it raised a question in the minds of librarians, writers, and archivists: Should we really put the entire repository of human knowledge in the hands of one company?

In 2010, university librarians met in a national conference and decided to create an alternative called the Digital Public Library of America. Operating under the auspices of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, it would archive every book in the public domain and offer them online to anyone. The library’s prototype is expected to launch this year.

“This is a civic-minded engagement,” says Kenny Whitebloom, who manages the library project. “There was a fear that Google Books was a commercial project, and this was an opportunity to create a digital library on its own terms.”

The Digital Public Library has a lot of things going for it. It won’t try to sell you ads when you read books online, and it won’t try to sell books it doesn’t have the right to. What it doesn’t have is money—or at any rate not enough of it to scan and organize every book in the United States. (The rest of the world is a matter the organization will have to leave for another day.)

Instead, the Digital Public Library will serve as the archive for other archives. All around the country, from the Library of Congress to the Internet Archive in Northern California, libraries have been scanning books and setting up individual databases for their collections. The Digital Public Library of America hopes to produce a search engine that will coordinate with these institutions, creating a single search portal that will direct users to every single book they need, in any collection.

Whitebloom expects to finalize the legal deals with the various partners in the coming year. But if he gets the project going, he just might be able to offer what Google won’t: words without ads. “It’s free and open to all,” he says, “a sustainable national resource that will not be beholden to commercial influences.”

This article originally appeared in print as "Read Free or Die." courtesy: http://spectrum.ieee.org

Practising what he preaches

A will to serve combined with a sense of social justice has been the guiding principle of P. Kalyanasundaram, who has spent over 45 years in social service. A gold medallist in library science, he is also an MA in literature and history. During his 35-year-career as a librarian at the Kumarkurupara Arts College at Srivaikuntam in Tuticorin district, he gave away all his salary for charity and did odd jobs to meet his daily needs. He has also come forward to donate his body and eyes to the Tirunelveli Medical College. 

The Union Government has acclaimed him as `The Best Librarian in India'. He has also been chosen as `one of the top ten librarians of the world'. The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, has honoured him as `one of the noblest of the world', while the United Nations Organisation adjudged him as one of the Outstanding People of the 20th Century'. An American organisation has also selected him as the `Man of the Millennium.' 

Mr. Kalyanasundaram, who has founded a social welfare organisation, `Paalam', shares his experiences in a chat with Prathiba Parameswaran.

SIMPLICITY IN life and exemplariness in practice has been the hallmark of Mr. Kalyanasundaram. Born in August 1953 at Melakarivelamkulam in Tirunelveli district, he lost his father at a very young age. It was his mother, who inspired him to serve the poor. 

When he was at college, the Indo-China war broke out, and he contributed his gold chain to the then Chief Minister, Kamaraj, for the war fund. At this time around, he went to meet Balasubramanian, Editor, Ananda Vikatan. "He sent me away, saying he would write about me the day I donated something I had earned myself. I did not speak a word to anyone about what I had done. I took it as a challenge," Mr. Kalyanasundaram recalls. Ever since he got a job as a librarian in Tuticorin, he has contributed all his salary, pension benefits and ancestral property to social welfare. It was not until 1990, when he received his pension arrears and contributed it to the Collector's Fund, that the then Tiruneveli Collector felicitated him, despite his protests. The `Paalam' serves as a bridge between donors and beneficiaries: it collects money and materials from those willing to donate and distribute them among the weaker sections. It has also contributed to the cyclone relief funds in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, and has helped the earthquake victims in Maharashtra and Gujarat. "We cannot sustain ourselves, unless we contribute towards the society in someway or the other. I strongly feel if even one person does his bit towards social good, there will be some change," he asserts. 

Mr. Kalyanasundaram feels that one must achieve something in his chosen field. His contribution to library science is immense. A thesis he submitted as part of his post-graduate course to the Madurai Kamaraj University fetched him distinction. He has also hit upon an easy way of tracing and accessing books in libraries. 

His ability to strike a rapport even with youngsters is remarkable. He cites the instance when he started wearing khadi. At college, he was required to take classes on Gandhianism. "I had to speak about simplicity and everything Gandhi stood for, but I was clad in expensive clothes. That was when I decided to switch over to khadi," he relates. Since then he had always practised what he stood for, making himself a role model for many youths.

He was popular among college and school students, and many of them have joined his organisation. 

He has long-term plans for his organisation. One is the setting up of a nationalised digital library with modern equipment, which could be accessed by people from all walks of life. 

He also wants to set up an international children's university in Tamil Nadu, with foreign aid. However, he says, a mission has a meaning only when the right people are involved in it. The Directorate of Public Libraries should recruit people with a library science background to be librarians, he says. "And good librarians should have a broad knowledge of everything." 

Courtesy: http://www.hindu.com

KLA/C-DAC Workshop on Information Security Awareness, 1 Dec.2012, Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala Library Association (KLA) in collaboration with the Centre for Development for Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad is organizing a Half  Day Workshop on “Information Security Awareness” on 1st December 2012 in Thiruvananthapuram.

read more at http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/

KLA Talks in connection with National Library Week 2012

Kerala Library Association (KLA) cordially invite you to the Talks to be organized by its State and Regional Committees in connection with the National Library Week 2012.

read more at  http://liskeralaseminars.blogspot.in/