Project Duration:  2009 - Ongoing

The Cultural Imaginings project is an effort to digitize major holdings from and about North Africa and the Middle East at Georgetown and George Washington University libraries. These repositories hold some rare materials from the seventeenth century (and earlier) through the modern era. We will provide the resulting digital incarnations available free-of-charge to scholars world-wide.
This project will use an automatic book scanning methodology to determine if it is possible to achieve high-productivity, high-quality output for large volumes of materials. The endeavor is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and our results will be disseminated widely.
 
Partnering Organization(s):
The Gelman Library System
The George Washington University
Georgetown University's Lauinger Library
The Institute for Museum and Library Services
Kirtas Technologies

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is the oldest and largest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in Washington, DC, Doha, Qatar and around the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit www.georgetown.edu.

About The George Washington University

Located in the heart of the nation's capital, The George Washington University was created by an Act of Congress in 1821. Today, GW is the largest institution of higher education in Washington, D.C. The University offers comprehensive programs of undergraduate and graduate liberal arts study as well as degree programs in medicine, public health, law, engineering, education, business and international affairs. Each year, GW enrolls a diverse population of undergraduate, graduate and professional students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 130 countries. For more information about The George Washington University, visit www.gwu.edu.

About Kirtas Technologies

Kirtas Technologies has pioneered and perfected the technology used today in quality, high-speed, nondestructive mass digitization. A proven workflow ensuring superior image quality, advanced search capabilities, unique archiving technology, and extensive metadata enabling multiple output options that stand the test of time are what set us apart and keep Kirtas at the forefront of the digital revolution. Learn more at www.kirtas.com.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.
·         Karim Boughida: boughidk@hotmail.com
·         Maureen Callahan mcallahan@gelman.gwu.edu

Digitization Project Manager The Gelman Library System
The George Washington University2130 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20052
202.994.6513
http://www.gelman.gwu.edu/collections/digitize
 
 
Project Mission: The Cultural Imaginings project is an effort to digitize major holdings from and about North Africa and the Middle East at Georgetown and George Washington University libraries.
Project Objective(s): The project will assess the cost-effectiveness of using automated digitization technologies and develop metrics to analyze the cost of digitization for high productivity and high quality images, with the goal of calculating the cost of digitization per page. The Cultural Imaginings project will demonstrate how a high productivity digitization effort can produce a significant volume of scholarly content in a quick, convenient, and reliable manner, and allow scholars of all ages to study the “orientalization” of the Middle East in the popular imagination of the West.

Target group(s): Readers and scholars across the globe
Geographical scope(s) of project :Global
Countries involved: U.S. directed project

One page summary about the project:  Attached
 
US involvement/contribution within the project :The organizations involved are U.S. based
 
Achievements/progress to date:. The project launch was a great success, with over fifty attendees, keynote remarks by Georgetown University Provost James O'Donnell, and a live demonstration of the Kabis and Skyview Digitization systems by Kirtas CEO Lofti Belkhir. The event was covered in The Chronicle of Higher Education and GW Today.
 
Contact person for the project: 
Karim Boughida: boughidk@hotmail.com
Maureen Callahan mcallahan@gelman.gwu.edu
Digitization Project Manager The Gelman Library System
The George Washington University2130 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20052
202.994.6513