BYU-CUA Eastern Christian Research Library
Kristian S.
Heal
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2005
Vol. 8, No. 1
For this publication, a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
license has been granted by the author(s), who retain full
copyright.
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv8n1prheal1
Kristian S. Heal
BYU-CUA Eastern Christian Research Library
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol8/HV8N1PRHeal1.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 8
issue 1
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
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[1] A great
number of essential Syriac texts are not readily available to
scholars, even in some of the world's great research libraries.
In order to remedy this situation, Brigham Young University has
joined with The Catholic University of America to undertake a
joint project to produce an on-line research collection for
Syriac studies. What follows is a report of the work carried
out so far. For further details please consult the project
website (http://cpart.byu.edu/ECRL).
Scope of the Project
[2] This
project aims to build an Eastern Christian Research Library
(the Library) of key editions and instruments de travail
published before 1930. The Library is primarily intended to be
a resource for scholars engaged in textual and manuscript
research in the major Eastern Christian languages. The Syriac
section of the Library will be populated first, under the
editorship of Dr. David Taylor.
The Coptic section, under the editorship of Dr.
Janet Timbie, is in its early stages. Pending available
resources, it is hoped that the Library we expand to include
Armenian, Christian Arabic, Ethiopic, and Georgian
sections.
Because of its focus, the
Syriac section will include only a fraction of the literature
published on Syriac studies before 1930. The Library is
therefore intended to complement and support Beth Mardutho's
more comprehensive eBethArké project
(http://www.bethmardutho.org/ebetharke/).
BYU and CUA are library partners of
eBethArké and are actively supporting this important
initiative.
Syriac Section-Phase 1
[3] Dr.
Taylor has set the basic parameters of the Syriac section and
drawn up a preliminary bibliography of volumes for inclusion
(see project website). Renovations to CUA's Mullen Library
created an opportunity in the summer of 2004 to begin
populating the library with rare and important works. The
richness of the Syriac holdings at CUA cannot be overestimated,
nor can the kindness and competence of the collection's
distinguished librarian, Dr. Monica Blanchard. Under her
direction, and with the help of competent student workers, 157
individual titles were scanned over a relatively brief
period.
[4] Images
at CUA were captured on a Zeutschel Omniscan 10000 TT color book
scanner tethered to a Windows PC, with a second PC used for
proofing and data backup, which was done on DVD. The Zeutschel
imaging system is the best of its kind, capable of producing
very high resolution scans with high color accuracy, yet with a
minimum of stress to the book or manuscript. Images were
captured at 600dpi, resulting in (e.g.) a 70 megapixel image
for a two-page capture of a 9"x11" book.
[5] The next
stage is to make the images accessible. Images are being
cropped, rotated, and resized in post-processing and prepared
for delivery as one of BYU library's online collections. The
collection will be freely accessible to all. The books will be
mounted on the web and made accessible through the ContentDM
image delivery system. The unprocessed and processed images
will also be archived by the library for future usage. The
first phase of the Syriac collection will be made available
over the course of the next year. Preference will be given to
high demand items. The state of the collection will be recorded
on the project website and announced periodically via the
Hugoye mailing list. We hope this will be a useful resource and
a benefit to scholars working in the field.
CUA technician scanning volume on Zeutschel 10000
TT._______
Notes