The Jewish Digital Archive Project (JDAP) is a community project that connects people by creating an online home for old movies, photographs and oral history interviews.
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Digital Preservation of the Iraqi Jewish Archive
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Discovery and Recovery: Behind the Scenes Work on the Iraqi Jewish Archive
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Discovery and Recovery: Iraqi Jewish Archive Exhibit Sneak Preview
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A major part of this project is the digitization of the documents. We’ll be able to put those on line and people all over the world will be able to look at what is in what we now call the Iraqi Jewish Archive. There’s rules involved with handling these archival materials. You want to grab them with two hands and have firm control. You have to have complete control because they’re so delicate you can tear it. Some of the books can open easily but if we were to put this under the glass cradle it would crack the binding and damage the book. So conservation made this paper cradle, book cradle for us. So it supports the book and also holds it open so we can photograph it. I’m doing what they call recto-verso. So we’re doing all the even pages first and then I’ll flip the book and do all the odd because we can’t put it under glass. The digitization team has done a superb job in setting up the whole digitization work flow, getting the right equipment capturing the images and doing quality control before they’re put up on the website. We compare every piece of paper to every image on screen to make sure everything is accounted for. Occasionally a page may have stuck together with a page before it and so we’re just ensuring that everything that’s been brought down to us has been imaged so nothing gets overlooked. The Golden Thread is like the reference. Once you have these set up there’s no way that the image could be anything other than correct. Between three different camera operators all the images will be consistent no matter who’s photographing. Sometimes we encounter documents where although we’ve made an accurate tonal reproduction because of the nature of the original and the faded text it’s better to enhance them. I’m going to apply a tonal correction that will increase the contrast. Then secondly I’m going to reduce the chroma or the color saturation. So what was before a hardly visible text is now much more legible. And the big thing too is to check focus. I’d zoom in at 100 percent and then look at focus to make sure everything was still in focus from corner to corner on the pages. That’s out of focus. Sometimes I have to retake the shot and refocus the image. Our goal in digitizing this collection is to provide the end user with as close to the same experience as they would have if they were actually handling the object itself.
History
The Jewish Digital Archive Project (JDAP) began in 2011. The project is based at The Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre at Cape Town University.[1]
The Jewish Digital Archive is collecting photography, film and oral history interviews for their archives for educational purposes such as academic research as well as for public genealogical interest.[2]
The JDAP can be compared to other broader archival initiatives at UCT for example: The Center for Popular Memory, The Michaelis Photographic Archives, and The University of Cape Town’s Library Manuscripts and Archives . However, The Jewish Digital Archive Project’s fundamental purpose is to connect members of the Jewish Community in Southern Africa.
Aims
JDAP aims to ensure that future generations benefit from stories of the past and keep up with the present. Taking place in South Africa in a Post- Apartheid era with new digital technology like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom websites and scanners, the project aims to create innovative ways of understanding and preserving legacies from the past. One of the ways JDAP plans to do this is through a website.
This project is taken place during a period where new ways of preserving and archiving are being explored. Once the JDAP website has been constructed, people will be able to view and share their histories and memories with others. The website will be interactive and constantly updated and co-created by the user. There will be a space for comments, insights and identifications which are essential when it comes to helping find people, form links and identify areas and themes of interest. By uploading material on to website film and photographs have less of a risk of being lost or damaged.
Themes
The photograph and film collections trace the history of Jewish people in Southern Africa. Many of these people came from places such as: Zimbabwe, Potchefstroom, Cuba and Lithuania. The archive explores the story of the Jewish Immigrants’ early arrival in Southern Africa and the various financial, social and religious circumstances behind these stories of migration. As well as their experience of assimilation and acculturation into new societies.
Type of Material
Old Film is brought to the archive, often in the form of 8mm reels. The domestic home video (i.e. the Batmitzvah or wedding film) can illuminate an important period of social history or contain previously unseen footage.[3] The photography offers visual evidence of a particular time in history. Oral History Interviews can examine different generations of people through first-hand accounts. The lives of ordinary and prolific people are reflected. Quotidian historical data such as diet, lifestyle, dress, and behavioural codes can shed light on a specific time and place in the past.
Copyright Procedure on Material
The JDAP has the rights for education, research, documentary and marketing use. All donors will be noted alongside their material. The project will make use of digital watermarking on photographs so they can’t be plagiarised. A copy of the material can be put on DVD [4] for the donor and the original material can be given back or stored.
References
- ^ "Kaplan Center Project Overview". Kaplan Center Project. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
- ^ "Jewish Digital Art". UCT Canada. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
- ^ "Kaplan Center Family Album". Kaplan Center. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
- ^ "Donate Material". Kaplan Center. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
External links
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This page was last edited on 30 September 2022, at 05:09