Digital Library Collections: Building virtual research tools and environments for access to manuscripts, photographs, and other primary source materials

UCLA Digital Library Program

Primary contact

Stephen Davison
Head
UCLA Digital Library Program
(310) 267-5135
sdavison@library.ucla.edu

Project URL

digital.library.ucla.edu

Project description

The UCLA Library is digitizing Persian and Arabic manuscripts from the Caro Minasian Collection. They form a rich repository of Islamic learning—primarily from the 14th to the 19th century—containing many unique and rare documents relating to philosophy, law, religious practice, government, language and grammar, history, science, astronomy, and literature. By the end of 2008 we expect to have 470 manuscripts (ca. 100,000 pages) online.

The search and retrieval system will support discovery, display, and navigation by users in English, Persian and Arabic and will feature a “virtual research environment” to support a variety of online research activities, including the annotation of manuscript images and transcription of non-Roman scripts.

Other major digitization projects at the Library include historic photographs from the Los Angeles Times archive, the AIDS Poster collection, the Campaign Literature web archive, and maps and plans from the Orsini Collection.

Project video