09 Jan 2002

The International Dunhuang Project: Procedures and Standards for Digitisation and Image Management
International Dunhuang Project, Oriental and India Office Collections, The British Library, London, UK.
Self-description: "AIM: To produce high-quality DIGITAL files to serve as long-term master images and as a source of derivative files. The digital master should represent as accurately as possible the visual information in the original object. MATERIAL: The material to be digitised consists primarily of pre-11th century manuscripts from eastern Central Asia, on paper, wood and other media. AUTHORS: Jonathan Jackson, Eva del Rey, Rachel Roberts, Caroline Smith, Victoria Swift, Colin Chinnery, Sam van Schaik, Susan Whitfield."
Site contents: SECTION 1: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY 1. Summary of equipment 1.1 Method 1.2 Equipment 1.3 Camera / Scanning back / Lens 1.4 Lights / Lighting 1.5 Targets 1.6 Software / Hardware 2. Handling of Manuscripts and Artefacts 3. Maintenance, Reflection and Review 4. Choice and Supply of Manuscripts for Digitisation 5. Procedure for Photography 5.1 Preparation for Photography 5.2 Preview Image 5.3 Checking a Preview Image 5.4 Capture Image 5.5 Image Assessment 5.6 Use of Uniform Light Tool 5.7 Photography of Rolled Scrolls 5.8 Database requirements 5.9 Image Transfer 6. Known Issues / Problem Areas in Photography 6.1 Focussing 6.2 Banding 6.3 Dust 6.4 Melinex 6.5 Percentage of Image Failures. SECTION 2: IMAGE MANIPULATION 7. Summary of equipment. 7.1 Method 7.2 Equipment 7.3 Gamma and Colour Management 8. Handling of Manuscripts and Artefacts 9. Procedure for Manipulation 9.1 " Raw" Files 9.2 "Manipulation" Files 9.3 Image Manipulation 10. Appendices 10.1 Conservation Checks 10.2 Naming Convention 10.3 Size of Files 10.4 Metadata 10.5 Database Structure [under construction at the time of this note] 10.6 Glossary [under construction at the time of this note].
[The site (est. Nov 2001) forms a part of the International Dunhuang Project (IDP) (idp.bl.uk) - ed.]
URL http://idp.bl.uk/idp/standards/standards.html
Internet Archive (web.archive.org) [not archived at the time of this note]
Link reported by: Susan Whitfield (susan.whitfield@popmail.bl.uk)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Documents
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30