Digitizing Historical Manuscripts Facilitates Preservation of Ancient Literature

Digitizing Historical Manuscripts Facilitates Preservation of Ancient Literature Advanced technologies have made it easy to preserve age-old documents, study their origin and hidden features. Today, many authorities prefer the digitization of historical documents so that they can be conveniently accessed online and made easily available to researchers and other users that need them. The University of the Punjab (in Lahore) and the University of Dhaka are making arrangements for the digitization of significant Sanskrit and Hindi manuscripts. The scripts include topics such as Indian philosophy, yoga and meditation, justice, Kamashastra, Buddhist philosophy, Vedic literature and medicine, Sanskrit grammar and composition, sculpture, decorative art and astronomy. Many of these manuscripts are more than thousand years old and some belong to the pre-independence era.

Converting historic manuscripts into digitized format usually involves the processes of scanning, indexing, and OCR processing.

According to a recent report, the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) will join hands with the Iran Culture House (ICH), New Delhi, to handle the digitization work of both these Universities. One of the world’s most important research libraries, the Vatican Apostolic Library is also known for its efforts towards massive digitization of historic manuscripts. They are planning for digital archiving of 1.5 million pages, which comprises some 82,000 items and 41 million pages.

Advantages of Digitizing Historical Manuscripts Historical manuscripts containing unique pieces of information should be preserved to carry over traditional ancient literature to future generations. For digitization and facilitating online access, the manuscripts will be subjected to document scanning and indexing.

When historical manuscripts are digitized, they will enable increased search and the information will be accessible to more number of users. Other benefits of digitization include reduced handling and use of fragile manuscripts, facility to copy and

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distribute materials, etc. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the

government

agency

that

preserves

and

provides

access

to

the

U.S.

Government's collection of historic documents, highlights the following as the main advantages of digitization.

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Allows access to those materials that can no longer be accessed in their original format.

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Digitized documents ensure enhanced preservation of records (originals) by reducing wear and tear.

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Documents in digital format allow online access to an increased number of holdings.

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Documents in digital format facilitate users to have a better understanding of their authenticity and archival context such as who created the records, why they were created, and how they were used.

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Documents, when stored in digitized format, save a lot of space and allow resources to be utilized more efficiently.

Professional assistance can be sought for digitization, as the same can save organizations time and money. A virtual library can thus be created for future use.

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