Manuscripts Archive

Manuscripts Archive (சுவடியகம்)

Introduction

In Sri Lanka, there exist a vast number of medieval and late modern Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts held by individuals and organizations. These palm-leaf manuscripts cover a variety of subjects including traditional medicine, law, history, technology and religion. Majority of these works have not been published in print. In addition, there exist an array of contemporary handwritten manuscripts such as notebooks, letters and diaries. Noolaham’s Archive’s project identifies, catalogues, digitizes and makes these works accessible to the wider scholarly community and the public. Palm-leaf manuscripts need special handling and equipment to be digitized. To date, Noolaham has completed manuscript archiving projects with Chunnakam Library, the Jaffna Library and Sivagurunathapeedam.

Technology

The scanning equipment

The Manuscripts Archive Program follows Guidelines for photographing and scanning archival material recommended by the Endangered Archive Program of the British Library.

A digital SLR camera is used to capture the archival material is RAW format. A copystand is used (see the photo) to prevent any distortion while capturing the images. A colour chart is placed with the archival material to confirm the accuracy of the colours captured. Overhead lights are used as well. The captured RAW files are converted into uncompressed TIFF files later.

Projects

1. Manuscripts Archive Jaffna Public Libray 2013
2. Manuscripts Archive Chunnakam Public Library 2012
3. Manuscripts Archive Pilot Project 2012

News

• Noolaham Foundation has started manuscripts archiving project from Chunnakam Public Library (2012.10.01)
• Endangered Archive Programme (EAP) Training - Seran's visit to Pondichery (2012.05.24)

<headertabs/>