Sunday, October 28, 2007
AVAILABLE CORPORATE GRANT
One of the world's most valuable technology companies with a presence here in the Philippines may have some grant money to dole out. The company's core competence is information infrastructure, and one of the social responsibility programs it supports is the preservation through digital archiving of historical, culturally-important information in national museums and libraries. Hence the company's global headquarters awards grants of varying amounts to worthy projects endorsed from different countries.
If you know of any local historical institutions or initiatives that might benefit from this kind of assistance, please email me your information and I will forward it to the person in charged of application solicitation.
posted by Señor Enrique at 7:44 AM
11 Comments:
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Amadeo said... Eric:
Is that your old PC on top of what look like old edition copies of Britannica? What kind?
Is the pic a composite? The PC looks very tiny compared to the books.-
Señor Enrique said...
That miniature composite of an old PC, Amadeo, is a business card holder and the stack of books is actually a wooden box :)
Friends and relations nowadays are used to my borrowing various items from them to photograph. At first they were unsure what to make of it, but after seeing some of the photos, they now find my preoccupation with their stuff amusing.-
NOYPETES said...
The Southern Regional Libraray Facility at UCLA is a rare book, manuscripts,films,video repository/archive. I supervise the Preservation Imaging Services unit of the repository. Film and digital imaging is how we access the treasure trove of info through the UCLA Digital Library. We are in the process of digitizing thousands of negatives from the Los Angeles Times Collection. Biomedical manuscripts from the 14th century was also preserved on film and will be reformated digitally soon. Digital photographs of 3D objects donated by famous people are also available at the Digital Library. Most are produced by my team of photographers.All these are done with strict adherence to the preservation standards set by the American Library Association, Library of Congress and California Digital Library. Yahoo and Google are also competing to digitize some of our books and I believe are being outsourced to the Philippines.
The only negative comment I have with format change to digital is, the easy way to manipulate the image, such as changing names and dates in inportant historical info. Image preservation on Film is still the better option but not as convenient to access the info and much more tedious to produce.-
Señor Enrique said...
That is some task you have on your hands, Pete -- negatives from the L.A. Times Collection, and the biomedical manuscripts from the 14th century. Amazing!
Data information manipulation is indeed quite easy with today's digital technology, but perhaps, something can be done to make the information more secure, especially with the kind of documents that you handle.
Be that as it may, if I ever find myself in L.A. in dire need of a job, I'd most likely give you a call ... hehehe.-
-= dave =- said...
Since I'm in IT, I appreciate these digital archiving projects. Especially if it means knowledge can be easily distributed.
However, having read about a "Digital Dark Ages" at LongNow.org, I'd be more cautious about lost data due to obsolete hardware or software. It's like being unable to understand ancient scribblings because it was written in an unknown language. Sayang naman... Of course, there's math to the rescue, but decoding can really be tough.-
Señor Enrique said...
Just browsed through quickly the site you've mentioned, Dave, and I bookmarked it for a more through reading later.
I, too, was involved in IT, I was a senior systems engineer for Internet infrastructure design in New York. I thought if I were to return to this field, I would focus more on security, but now, I'm even more intrigued with preservation.-
ScroochChronicles said...
Hmm, since you are talking about archiving and archivists, I'm wondering if you would know of a library here that has records of "patented claims" (land) granted in the 1930's. I've searched everywhere. UP, Ateneo, Lasalle, Bureau of Mines, National Library..lahat na. Baka you know? I'm thinking that since this was during the time of the Americans, baka some library in the States has this. Sorry ha, just had to ask. I've been researching this for the last year na kasi :)
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NOYPETES said...
I am a photographer by trade Eric and I am not well versed in IT and math. But I do follow the trend in the IT business and understand the inner workings of digital scanning and image capture as well as digital photography. I have a lot of concerns about digital data security. Migration of obsolete hardware to a new one is always the answer I get when I question loosing data but it seems like there's always problems arising from all these new softwares.
And yes, if there's a need for more photo techs at my job and you happen to be here looking for a job, I will give you top consideration.-
Señor Enrique said...
Storage systems technology keeps getting more sophisticated; hence more established firms getting more into as Hewlett-Packard had done, including some interesting startups. Nonetheless, the software might have to be proprietary, Pete, especially depending upon the sensitivity of the the materials/documents involved. Also, that would entail substantial funding. SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.) I'm sure, can tackle the job. Its headquarters is in San Diego.
There's also the issue of information access/retrieval. Jeeez!
Thanks Pete!-
Señor Enrique said...
The Library of Congress in Washington, DC might have such records, Scrooch, especially since the Philippine archipelago was still, technically, under American colonial rule during the '30s.
But then again, it may not hurt writing MLQ3 a note, and ask him for tips as where to start. I've a feeling he might have a good idea on this matter. Good luck!-
Señor Enrique said...
Thanks for the link, Romy. I love browsing through propaganda graphics and films. A friend has a collection of Nazi propaganda materials that he was able to sell only recently to a private collector for a hefty sum.
Many interesting stuff came from China as well during Mao's regime.
