Off-topic: NYBC plans, respond to NYBC

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

The following was bounced from the list (Aaron is not currently
a list member), but enough people have responded to this issue
that I am manually passing it through. Please also repost this
to any relevant mailing lists (UYIP, bookpeople, mendele, etc.)

Please direct correspondence/comments, etc. to Aaron, by private
e-mail, as he is not subscribed to this list and will not otherwise
get your comments.

ari

>From: Aaron Lansky <alansky (at) bikher(dot)org>
>To: "'jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org'" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: RE: Recent News--not exactly music
>Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 17:36:38 -0500
>
>
>Joel:
>
>Sholem aleykhem -- it was good to hear from you, albeit indirectly.
>=09
>As you guessed, we will be scanning every page of every title in our =
>collection and storing them as bit-mapped files.  We will then be able =
>to output affordable, acid-free reprint editions of virtually every =
>title on demand.  In the future, we'll also be able to offer books in =
>electronic format, either on cd (or whatever medium is then current) or =
>by direct download through the internet. =20
>
>OCR scan has not yet been perfected for English, let alone Yiddish.  =
>However, once the technology catches up to us, we should be able to run =
>an OCR-scan of our graphics files.
>
>Scanning at our end is scheduled to begin on February 1.  We expect to =
>process 800 books a month, or 20,000 over the next two years.  We will =
>then work with several major research libraries to capture an additional =
>15,000 Yiddish titles not included in our collection.  Eventually we'll =
>tackle serials as well.  The entire project should take four to five =
>years to complete.
>
>How will libraries and individuals know what titles are available?  =
>Within the next several months we'll begin posting each digitized title =
>to a user-searchable database resident on our website =
>(yiddishbookcenter.org).  Using library software from VTLS, our records =
>will include both standard romanization (following AACR2 authorities), =
>as well as the "vernacular" (the original Hebrew character set).  =
>End-users will be able to search our database by author, title and LC =
>subject.  Within a year, we should be able to offer e-commerce ordering =
>directly through our website.=20
>
>Once it's up and running, our "Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library" =
>should make most Yiddish titles available in unlimited quantity in =
>perpetuity.  Naturally, we're all enormously excited at the prospect. =20
>
>Please feel free to post this information and share it as widely as =
>possible.
>
>
>Best wishes,
>Aaron Lansky, President
>National Yiddish Book Center
>----------
>From:  Joel Bresler[SMTP:jbresler (at) ultra(dot)net]
>Sent:  Wednesday, December 09, 1998 11:12 AM
>To:    World music from a Jewish slant.
>Subject:       Re: Recent News--not exactly music
>
>Judy,=20
>
>I think your correspondent is mistaken about the technical aspects of =
>this
>important project. My guess it that they are scanning the books and
>capturing "images" of the individual pages but NOT using character
>recognition to input the contents into a database or machine searchable
>corpus (the latter is a MUCH bigger task.)
>
>There is no need for a markup and file format standard if they are =
>taking
>the latter route.
>
>Does anyone else know for sure?
>
>Best, Joel=20
>
>At 10:51 AM 12/9/98 -0500, you wrote:
>>Forwarding this from the Book People list. Hope it is of interest....
>>Not exactly music.....but reminded me of our former topic of Yiddish =
>and
>>standards.....=20
>>perhaps relevant to those talking about standards for transliterations =
>and
>>so forth as these items are digitized and catalogued. j.
>>
>>>Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 18:44:26 -0500
>>>From: Gary Young <younggr (at) echo-on(dot)net>
>>>Subject: Recent News
>>>Sender: spok+ (at) gs1(dot)sp(dot)cs(dot)cmu(dot)edu
>>>To: "'spok+bookpeople (at) cs(dot)cmu(dot)edu'" <spok+bookpeople (at) 
>>>cs(dot)cmu(dot)edu>
>>>Source-Info: Sender is really spok (at) ux4(dot)sp(dot)cs(dot)cmu(dot)edu
>>>
>>>
>>>1998 Dec 07
>>>The following item appeared in today's Toronto _Globe and Mail_
>>>
>>>"Fewer than 1 per cent of Jews still read Yiddish.  In January, a =
>project
>>will be launched to put the literature into computers.  "Yiddish will =
>be
>>the first literature to be 100 per cent digitized," Aaron Lansky says.  =
>The
>>digital library will be named after filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who =
>donated
>>$500,000 (U.S.) to the project."
>>>
>>>Good luck to them.
>>>
>>>Maybe they can establish a de facto standard re markup and file =
>format.
>>>
>>>Gary
>>>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>This message was sent via the Book People mailing list.
>>>Posting address:                 spok+bookpeople (at) cs(dot)cmu(dot)edu
>>>Admin. and Unsubscribe address:  spok+bookpeople-request (at) 
>>>cs(dot)cmu(dot)edu
>>>Charter:                         =
>http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/bookpeople.html
>>>

Respond to: 

Aaron Lansky
alansky (at) bikher(dot)org