Grant - Training Programing in Imaging Ancient Manuscripts and Artifacts

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, conservators, archivists and researchers 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 intrins ic importance of a proposed pilot imaging project as well as the appropriateness of the subject matter for RTI imaging. For more information, see http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/Training_Program.pdf or contact Marilyn Lundberg (mlundber@usc.edu) or Bruce Zuckerman (bzuckerm@usc.edu).