Training program for manuscript imaging

THE WEST SEMITIC RESEARCH PROJECT announces:

A NEW TRAINING Program for Scholars, conservators and researchers in the Use of Reflectance Transformation imaging (RTI) for Documenting ancient texts and artifacts including the Loan of Imaging Equipment

The University of Southern California’s West Semitic Research Project (www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp) has received grants from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish a Training Program in advanced imaging technologies for the documentation of ancient texts and artifacts with an initial emphasis on Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). The IMLS and the Mellon Foundation have also funded the purchase of imaging equipment to support the Training Program.

The objective of this project is to develop an infrastructure for training scholars in the use of RTI technology and subsequently to lend the necessary imaging equipment to participants in the training program so they can do an initial RTI documentation project either in field environments (archaeological sites, etc.) or in libraries, museums and/or other similar venues, worldwide. This initial undertaking should be understood to be a pilot project that can develop into an ongoing, broader documentary
effort and preferably may also serve as the catalyst for establishing a consortial network for image documentation of a given corpus (or corpora) of ancient texts and/or artifacts. All equipment to be lent out is both rugged and compact and is thus ideal for doing sophisticated imaging in remote locations. Twenty-four awards over three years (approximately eight per year) for traineeships will be provided based on the merit and intrinsic importance of a proposed pilot imaging project as well as the appropriateness of the subject matter for RTI imaging.

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Click on the link to download the full PDF document with detailed further particulars. "Decisions will be made on the initial round of applications by October 15, 2012." For more on Bruce Zuckerman and the West Semitic Research Project see here with many links. More on Reflectance Transformation Imaging here. For other manuscript imaging and conservation projects, see here and links. And lots more on manuscript digitization projects here and links.

Via the Agade list. Cross-file under "Technology Watch."