Friday, July 31, 2009

Open Access Publication: The Demotic Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Letter H2

The Demotic Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Letter H2
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago announces the publication of a new title, available exclusively online.

The Demotic Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Letter H2.

Kindly note that CDD H2 (h with under dot) is the first of five letters to be released this summer. Soon to follow are CDD W, P, M, and Sh. The final three letters, CDD 'I, S, and T, will be released at the conclusion of the project. Thereafter, a printed copy of the CDD is scheduled to be published, which will include the twenty-four letters and all the supporting documentation.
Letters completed to date include:


Completed LettersDownload
PrologueDownload PDFTerms of Use
3Download PDFTerms of Use
cDownload PDFTerms of Use
YDownload PDFTerms of Use
BDownload PDFTerms of Use
FDownload PDFTerms of Use
NDownload PDFTerms of Use
RDownload PDFTerms of Use
LDownload PDFTerms of Use
HDownload PDFTerms of Use
H2Download PDFTerms of Use
H3Download PDFTerms of Use
H4Download PDFTerms of Use
QDownload PDFTerms of Use
KDownload PDFTerms of Use
GDownload PDFTerms of Use
TJDownload PDFTerms of Use
DJDownload PDFTerms of Use
Problematic EntriesDownload PDFTerms of Use
Problematic Entries 2Download PDFTerms of Use

Atlas database of exhibits

LOUVRE Atlas database of exhibits

Simple search | Advanced search | By room | By department | Recent acquisitions
The Atlas database covers all the works exhibited in the museum - some 30,000 items.

Internet users, like museum visitors, will find the usual explanatory texts that accompany museum exhibits, compiled under the authority of the museum curators.
New images are currently being added to the database, which is constantly updated.

The Atlas database currently contains some 30,000 works - 98 % of the museum's exhibits, distributed throughout the museum's departments as follows:

Near Eastern Antiquities: some 5777 works
Islamic Art: some 1283 works
Egyptian Antiquities: some 4851 works
Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: some 6099 works

Decorative Arts: some 6613 works
Sculptures: some 1764 works
Paintings: some 3507 works
Prints and Drawings: some 113 works
Medieval Louvre and History of the Louvre: some 136 works


Thursday, July 30, 2009

Tracings made in various Theban tombs by Norman and Nina de Garis Davies

Tracings made in various Theban tombs by Norman and Nina de Garis Davies, and others

Some 1,000 sheets of tracings made in various Theban tombs by
Norman and Nina de Garis Davies sometime between 1920 and
1940, now in the Archive of the Griffith Institute, will be made
available on the Institute's website.



Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Perseus under PhiloLogic

Perseus under PhiloLogic
The Perseus Project at Tufts University is the foremost Digital Library for the classical world, if not for the Humanities in general. In its collection of Greek and Roman materials, readers will find many of the canonical texts read today. The Greek collection approaches 8 million words and the Latin collection currently has 5.5 million. In addition, many English language dictionaries, other reference works, translations, and commentaries are included, so that anyone with an internet connection has access to the equivalent of a respectable College Classics library. The Perseus site is further enriched by intricate linking mechanisms among texts (resulting in more than 30 million links).

You will here find the same texts, but the mechanism for browsing and searching the text is a different one. It is PhiloLogic, a system that was especially developed for large textual databases by the ARTFL project at the University of Chicago.

You can help us improve this site: If you encounter a problem, please use the "Report a Problem"User Manual gives a general introduction to searching under Philologic. This particular collection has its own special features, however. For a few quick hints to get you started, check out the link that you will find on the Results pages. In addition, we hope you will select the correct parses when you use the parse window. You will see your selection turn yellow; it will also be stored in the database. The Info and Help section on the full search forms

What is PhiloLogic?

PhiloLogic™ is the primary full-text search, retrieval and analysis tool developed by the ARTFL Project and the Digital Library Development Center (DLDC) at the University of Chicago. This is a Free Software implementation of PhiloLogic for large TEI-Lite document collections. The wide array of XML data specifications and the recent deployment of basic XML processing tools provides an important opportunity for the collaborative development of higher-level, interoperable tools for Humanities Computing applications. The sophistication and power of the TEI-XML encoding specification supports the development of extremely rich textual data representations that encourage, if not require, development of sets of tools to exploit features of encoded text to perform particular tasks. It may be the case that one general tool will never fit all possible uses for encoded documents, but that a set of more specialized, interoperable tools for end-user applications will provide a mechanism for cost-effective deployment of end-user applications.

As the ARTFL Project's contribution to the collaborative development of these tools, PhiloLogic has been enhanced to support a wide variety of TEI-Lite (XML and SGML) encoded documents optionally using the Unicode character specification. We feel that Humanities Computing applications are particularly well suited to open source development by a community with wide ranging technical abilities that is not well supported by the commercial sector. Our goal is to provide as many features as possible while not requiring significant administrative or development work to use effectively.

Originally implemented to support large databases of French literature, PhiloLogic has been extended to support a wide variety of textual and hypermedia databases in collaboration with numerous academic institutions and, more recently, commercial organizations. PhiloLogic is a modular system, in which a textbase is treated as a set of coordinated or related databases, typically including an object (units of text such as a letter, scene, document, etc) database, a word forms database, a word concordance index mapped to textual objects, and an object manager mapping text objects to byte offsets in data files. Each of these databases is stored and managed using its own subsystem.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Open Access Digital Library: ArchNet

ArchNet
ArchNet is an exciting project being developed at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning in close cooperation with, and with the full support of The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture is a private, non-denominational, international development agency with programmes dedicated to the improvement of built environments in societies where Muslims have a significant presence.

The goal of ArchNet is to create a community of architects, planners, educators, and students. The community can help each other by sharing expertise, local experience, resources, and dialogue. Members are urged to take on a pro-active role in the community. Imagine the wealth of knowledge and history created in the various schools of architecture around the world. ArchNet hopes to tap that knowledge and provide a mechanism by which these valuable tools can be disseminated.

ArchNet will provide an extensive, high-quality, globally accessible, intellectual resource focused on architecture and planning issues and includes restoration, conservation, housing, landscape, and related concerns. It is to be achieved by providing on an accessible server, images, Geographic Information System and Computer-Aided Design databases, a searchable text library, bibliographical reference databases, online lectures, curricular materials, papers, essays, and reviews, discussion forums and statistical information. The structure will be designed to offer each user a personal workspace tailored to his or her individual needs. From this space, they will be able to contribute their own findings and research to the larger site. The website will aim to foster close ties between institutions and between users. Through the use of online forums, chat rooms, and debates, it is hoped that the site can encourage and promote discussions amongst participants. ArchNet will be accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. It will be a bottom-up system, in which information will eventually flow directly from the user to a continually expanding database which can be shared by all. The system will be designed to promote ready intercommunication and maintenance of an international scholarly community of ArchNet members.

ArchNet is envisaged as a borderless network of institutions contributing to, and learning from each other, which would have considerable influence in the way that architects and planners are educated and practice. New computer and telecommunication technologies have great potential for supporting communication and collaboration among architectural and planning students, faculty, scholars, and practitioners throughout the world. ArchNet will provide opportunities for realising that potential. Membership is free and your personal information will be kept confidential. Registration only takes a few moments and is necessary for those who would like the ability to be able to contribute to ArchNet.

Members can contribute by adding their individual image collections and files in their personal workspace; they can add events to the Digital Calander; post a topic or a response in the Discussion Forum; create a Group Workspace with other members from around the globe; work with their institution to create an Institution Workspace to make student work and faculty research available to the larger community; and, add to the academic directory or link to web resources in the Reference Section of the Digital Library. To find out more how you can contribute please go to the Help Module.

All of ArchNet's resources are worthy of serious exploration, but note in particular the following digital publications

Alam al-Bina
The Center of Planning and Architectural Studies [CPAS] established in Cairo in 1980 is considered to be the first integrated center of its kind in the Arab world. The CPAS works along two parallel lines: the first is in the field of architecture and planning, with consultation services in Egypt and other Arab countries. The second is in the field of training, research and publication, as exemplified by Alam al-Bina (or Alam al-Bena'a), a monthly architectural magazine.

Alam al-Bina is accessible online for the first time on ArchNet, through the generous contribution of CPAS. The ArchNet Digital Library offers selected articles in .pdf format from volumes 198 through 216, published in 1998 and 1999.

ArchNet-IJAR

Archnet-IJAR International Journal of Architectural Research is an interdisciplinary, fully-refereed scholarly online journal of architecture, planning, and built environment studies. ArchNet-IJAR is edited by Ashraf Salama.

Two international boards (advisory and editorial) ensure the quality of scholarly papers and allow for a comprehensive academic review of contributions spanning a wide spectrum of issues, methods, theoretical approaches and architectural and development practices.

ArchNet-IJAR provides a comprehensive academic review of a wide spectrum of issues, methods, and theoretical approaches. It aims to bridge theory and practice in the fields of architectural/design research and urban planning/built environment studies, reporting on the latest research findings and innovative approaches for creating responsive environments. Articles are listed individually and can be sorted by author, title or year.

Ars Orientalis

Ars Orientalis is sponsored by the University of Michigan Department of the History of Art and the Freer Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian Institution. This journal is an annual volume of scholarly articles and book reviews on the art and archaeology of Asia, including the ancient Near East and the Islamic world. It fosters a broad range of themes and approaches, targeting scholars in diverse fields. Occasional thematic volumes are published.

Oleg Grabar, Constructing the Study of Islamic Art

"Constructing the Study of Islamic Art is a set of four volumes of studies by Oleg Grabar. Between them they bring together more than eighty articles, studies and essays, work spanning half a century. Each volume takes a particular section of the topic, the four volumes being entitled: Early Islamic Art, 650-1100; Islamic Visual Culture, 1100-1800; Islamic Art and Beyond; and Jerusalem. Reflecting the many incidents of a long academic life, they illustrate one scholar's attempt at making order and sense of 1400 years of artistic growth. They deal with architecture, painting, objects, iconography, theories of art, aesthetics and ornament, and they seek to integrate our knowledge of Islamic art with Islamic culture and history as well as with the global concerns of the History of Art. In addition to the articles selected, each volume contains an introduction which describes, often in highly personal ways, the context in which Grabar's scholarship developed and the people who directed and mentored his efforts." (Ashgate)

Mimar: Architecture in Development
Mimar: Architecture in Development was first published in 1981 and had a print run of 43 issues. At the time of Mimar's inception, it was the only international architecture magazine focusing on architecture in the developing world and related issues of concern. It aimed at exchanging ideas and images between countries which are developing new directions for their built environment. ArchNet is pleased to offer the complete set of Mimar: Architecture in Development, in the ArchNet Digital Library.
Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World
The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sponsors scholarly works on the history of Islamic art and architecture. Its major publication is Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World.

Muqarnas is a lively forum of discussion among scholars and students in the West and in the Islamic world. Subjects covered in its pages include the history of Islamic art and architecture up to the present, with attention devoted as well to aspects of Islamic culture, history, and learning. It is widely regarded as the foremost scholarly journal for historians of art and architecture who focus on the Islamic world. Annual volumes of Muqarnas are periodically accompanied by special research supplements. To date, twenty volumes of have been published.

ArchNet is pleased to offer Muqarnas volumes one through sixteen in the ArchNet Digital Library, with special permission from E.J. Brill and Yale University Publications (volumes one and two). Clicking on the 'year' column heading below will sort articles by volume. Volumes one through twelve are entitled Muqarnas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Open Access Book: From Babylon to Baghdad: Ancient Iraq and the Modern West

From Babylon to Baghdad: Ancient Iraq and the Modern West
(Press Release) July 22, 2009 - WASHINGTON, D.C. – Announcing the release of From Babylon to Baghdad: Ancient Iraq and the Modern West, a free e-book published by the Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS). This latest publication from BAS comes at a time of great concern for Iraq’s cultural heritage on the part of the archaeological community, which is outlined in a recent UNESCO report assessing the damage incurred to ancient sites and museums during the course of the Iraq war.

From Babylon to Baghdad: Ancient Iraq and the Modern West examines the relationship between ancient Iraq and the cultures of modern Western societies. This collection of articles, written by scholars who are the authorities on their subjects, details some of the ways in which ancient Near Eastern civilizations have impressed themselves on our Western culture. It examines the evolving relationship that modern scholarship has with this part of the world, and chronicles the present-day fight to preserve Iraq’s cultural heritage.

The four-article collection is comprised of the following:

“The Genesis of Genesis: Is the Creation Story Babylonian?” by Victor Hurowitz of Ben Gurion
University, examines the relationship between Mesopotamian mythology and the Judeo-Christian creation story.

“Backwards Glance: Americans at Nippur,” by Katharine Eugenia Jones, recounts the adventures—and misadventures—of the first American archaeological expedition to the region.

“Europe Confronts Assyrian Art,” by Mogens Trolle Larsen of the University of Copenhagen, explains what Europeans first thought of the art and artifacts that began to arrive in the West from the excavations of ancient Mesopotamian sites.

“Firsthand Report: Tracking Down the Looted Treasures of Iraq,” by reservist Colonel Matthew
Bogdanos, head of the military-led coalition of law enforcement agencies called the Joint Inter-Agency Coordination Group, chronicles the efforts to retrieve the priceless artifacts looted from the Baghdad Museum in April 2003, following the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces.

This free e-book is available for download at www.biblicalarchaeology.org/iraq. For more information, please visit the Biblical Archaeology Society’s Web site or contact Sarah Yeomans at
1.202.364.3300 ext. 221.

Open Access Journal: Numismatic Literature

Numismatic Literature
ISSN: 0029-6031
Numismatic Literature is the Society's annotated bibliography of published work in all fields of numismatics. At its core NumLit is a text archive that supports multiple delivery formats, one that is designed for longevity in the face of rapid technological innovation. For users, NumLitNumLit is very much "under development" and comments are very welcome. currently exists as subject and author indexes that are regularly updated as new titles are entered. The titles are also listed in the reverse order of when they were added. Please note that
NumLit is a community effort so that we also wish to thank the regional editors. We will be working to establish new procedures for accepting entries, including on-line submission, and welcome preliminary indications from anyone who might be interested in participating.
NumLit 144, 145, 146, 147, 148 and 149 are currently available in the following formats, the first three of which are automatically generated from the last:

149 [2005] (In preparation)
148 [2004] (In preparation)
147 [2003] (Available from Oxbowbooks. Search for "numismatic literature".)
146 [2002] (Available from Oxbowbooks. Search for "numismatic literature".)
145 [2001] (Available from Oxbowbooks. Search for "numismatic literature".)
144 [2000] (Available from Oxbowbooks. Search for "numismatic literature".)

 

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Smell of Books (with apologies in advance)

Smell of Books
Does your Kindle leave you feeling like there’s something missing from your reading experience?

Have you been avoiding e-books because they just don’t smell right?

If you’ve been hesitant to jump on the e-book bandwagon, you’re not alone. Book lovers everywhere have resisted digital books because they still don’t compare to the experience of reading a good old fashioned paper book.

But all of that is changing thanks to Smell of Books™, a revolutionary new aerosol e-book enhancer.

Now you can finally enjoy reading e-books without giving up the smell you love so much. With Smell of Books™ you can have the best of both worlds, the convenience of an e-book and the smell of your favorite paper book.

Smell of Books™ is compatible with a wide range of e-reading devices and e-book formats and is 100% DRM-compatible. Whether you read your e-books on a Kindle or an iPhone using Stanza, Smell of Books™ will bring back that real book smell you miss so much.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Online Canon of Greek Authors and Works

The TLG® Online Canon of Greek Authors and Works
The TLG® Canon of Authors and Works is a searchable database and a bibliographic guide to the authors and works included in the TLG® Digital Library. It provides biographical information about each author (i.e. date by century and epithets that identify the place of birth or literary activity and the genre each author is associated with). Each author is identified by a four-digit number; each work is identified by a three-digit number. For example, Homer is author 0012. Homer's Iliad is identified as 0012.001. The structure of each text is further identified by its particular citation. To use the same example, line 1 in book 1 in Homer's Iliad is 0012.001.1.1. The TLG Canon is a well-established standard used by all digital projects across the globe.

The Canon represents many years of research conducted by TLG staff members. A printed version of the Canon (Luci Berkowitz and Karl A. Squitier, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae Canon of Greek Authors and Works, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press) was published in 1990. The Online Canon, now edited by Project Director, Maria Pantelia, has grown substantially since the early 1990s, especially as the TLG expanded into the Byzantine period. The Online Canon database currently contains over 12,000 bibliographical records and is regularly updated to include new entries as they are added to the TLG® Digital Library

The TLG® Online Canon of Greek Authors and Works is available in open access. It is not behind the TLG subscribers' firewall.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Open Access Journal: New Voices In Classical Reception Studies

New Voices In Classical Reception Studies
ISSN 1750-6581
Classical Reception Studies is a rapidly developing field of research. There is a growing number of new scholars investigating issues of reception of classical texts, ideas, performance, and material culture across different cultural contexts and in different media.

This ejournal site aims to provide a showcase for scholars who have reached the stage where they wish to publish the results of their research. We particularly encourage research that crosses discipline boundaries.

Papers contributed to the site will be subject to peer review prior to acceptance for publication. Refereed publications are of course of particular importance to those starting out on an academic career or those feeling their way in an academic area of research outside their usual discipline.

Readers' responses will be welcomed and will be passed to the originating author

We aim to publish annually in the Spring.
1 (2006)
2 (2007)
3 (2008)
4 (2009)

Open Access Journal: Archaeo+Malacology Group Newsletter

Archaeo+Malacology Group Newsletter
The Archaeo+Malacology Group Newsletter - A Brief Introduction

The Archaeomalacology Group was formed indirectly as the result of a talk I gave to fellow members of the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland at the Natural History Museum in London in February 2000. Having worked as an archaeomalacologist, albeit on a freelance and very part time basis, for nearly 25 years in almost total isolation, it came as a revelation to me that there were others out there with similar interests! It therefore seemed a good idea to try to establish a forum where archaeomalacologists could air their views, exchange information and above all make contact with others working in similar subject areas.

The first issue of the AMG Newsletter appeared in July 2001 and consisted of the names, contact details and research interests of the thirty-two people who had responded to a notice I published in The Conchologists' Newsletter (No. 154: 385, September 2000). Since then the list has expanded to include around 80 members. Further issues have appeared at approximately six-monthly intervals, and have included short articles, research notes, abstracts of publications, notices of meetings, requests for information, and so on.

The ICAZ Archaeomalacology Working Group was then set up as a result of the one-day archaeomalacology session held at the ICAZ Conference in Durham in August 2002. It was obvious that the AMG Newsletter and the ICAZ Group were aimed at the same audience, and it seemed sensible to join forces. The ICAZ Archaeomalacology Working Group has therefore kindly agreed to host the AMG Newsletter on their new website, starting with issue number 5. It is hoped to add the four previous issues at a later date, and future issues are scheduled for March and September each year.
Issue Number 15, June 2009

Issue Number 14, December 2008

Issue Number 13, June 2008

Issue Number 12, December 2007

Issue Number 11, May 2007

Issue Number 10, December 2006

Issue Number 9, March 2006

Issue Number 8, September 2005.

Issue Number 7, March 2005.

Issue Number 6, October 2004.

Issue Number 5, March 2004.

Issue Number 4, August 2003.

Issue Number 3, January 2003.

Issue Number 2, April 2002.

Issue Number 1, July 2001.