PDL, Panjab Digital Library, Digitization, Punjabi Manuscripts.

1. Digitization of Gurumukhi Manuscripts:
Initiatives of Panjab Digital Library
Pardeep Rattan
Govt. College, Phase VI, Ajitgarh (Mohali)
rattanpardeep@gmail.com
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2. 1. Manuscript. . .
 The word manuscript was originated
in 16th century from Medieval Latin
word “Manuscriptus” from Manu
by ‘hand’ + Scriptus ‘written’
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3. Manuscript. . .
National Mission for Manuscripts
(www.namami.org)
“A handwritten composition on paper, bark,
cloth, metal, palm leaves or any other material
dating back at least seventy-five years that has
significant scientific, historical or aesthetic
value.”
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4. Manuscript. . .
Online Free Dictionary
“a book, document or other composition written by hand,
a typewritten or handwritten version of book , an article, a
document or other, especially author’s own copy,
prepared and submitted for publication; and handwriting.”
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5. Manuscript. . .common elements
 A manuscript is basically a hand-written or inscribed piece of
information on bark, leaf, cloth, metal, paper or any other
material in any composition. This may be a combination of letters,
pictures, symbols, maps, figures etc. with knowledge content
about the art, culture, history and science of a civilization.
 a hand written document
 which has scientific, historical, literary or aesthetic
value and
 which is at least seventy-five year old.
The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972
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6. Manuscript…
The study of writing of manuscripts is
paleography
The study of manuscripts is manuscriptology
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7. 2. GURUMUKHI SCRIPT
The Gurumukhi Script was designed by the
Second Sikh Guru Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji in
16th century for writing Punjabi Language.
GURAMUKHI= “From the Mouth of the Guru”
35 distinct letters popularly called ‘ ’ and
Own set of numerals
www.indianetzone.com
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8. Barbara W Tuchman (1912-1989)
American Historian and teacher
“ Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent,
literature is dumb, science crippled, thoughts and speculation on a
standstill.
Without books, the development of a civilization would have been
impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world and
lighthouse erected in the sea of time. They are the companions,
magicians, bankers of treasures of the mind.
Books are humanity in print.”
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9. 3. DIGITIZATION
The creation of a computerized representation of
original documents.
The precious items like manuscripts and the items
with a limited permission of access needs to be
digitized for their free and global access and to save
them from potential damage and also for the use of
posterity.
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10. 4. WHY DIGITIZE ?
NEED DESCRIPTION
To preserve documents To allow user / reader to have access to
older or unique documents without
damaging the original one
Originals to make document  Better service to the users by allowing
more accessible full text searching
 To serve more users- at remote locations
and more than one user at a particular
time
 Accumulation of scattered materials ,
topic specific or otherwise
Reusing the documents Conversion of documents in different
formats- slideshow or training materials
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11. IS DIGITIZATION EASY ?
EASY CONVERSION DIFFICULT CONVERSION
White, clean opaque paper Coloured, damaged or thin
surfaces/paper
Simple layout, single columns Complex layout, multiple columns
Single sheets Fragile, heavy bindings
Straight text, few pictures Many pictures, tables, shades,
equations
Computer typefaces Poor quality printing, unusual
typefaces, handwriting
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DOCUMENT NEEDS TO BE CHECKED
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12. REQUIREMENTS…and THE PROCESS
REQUIREMENTS
Human Resources : Personnel and skills
Equipment : scanners, computers, storage devices
Software : Content Management System, OCR, Image
processing, spellcheck
Financial Resources
PROCESS
Obtaining permissions, Scanning, Checking, OCR,
Proofreading, Metadata, Backup
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13. PANJAB DIGITAL LIBRARY (PDL) :
Stepping Stone to a Milestone
Started operations as a Stepping Stone in the year 2003,
housed at plot no.1, Sector 28, Chandigarh, PDL has
achieved many Milestones while remaining true to its
motto and mission
Motto
“Revealing the Invisible Heritage of Punjab”
www.panjabdigilib.org
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14. PANJAB DIGITAL LIBRARY…
Mission :
Digitization of documents of ‘Punjab region without
distinction as to script, language, region, nationality or
other physical conditions’.
Mandate:
Free access for all to support life long learning.
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15. PANJAB DIGITAL LIBRARY…
Introduction :
PDL, a non-profit NGO is established with a mission to
find, locate, preserve and digitize the lost or
disappearing heritage of Punjab region due to
environment, ignorance or destruction.
Over 4500 Manuscripts digitized so far, includes 1000
“Paawan Saroops of Sri GURU GRANTH SAHIB” and the
oldest Saroop is of 1653.
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16. PANJAB DIGITAL LIBRARY…
Introduction :
Started operations in 2003-04 with a meager budget of
Rs. 10,000, 2 staffer, digitized 5000 pages/month.
Budget raised to Rs. 25,000 in 2005-06.
From the year 2007, PDL started accepting donations,
product capacity raised to 5000 pages/day.
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17. PANJAB DIGITAL LIBRARY…
MILESTONES…
The digitized collection of manuscripts at PDL dates back to
15th century on a variety subjects which includes theology,
history, philosophy, medicine etc. in different scripts and
languages with a thrust on Gurumukhi.
A complete metadata is available with PDL for each of the
digitized manuscript including title, year, description,
keywords, script, language, author, custodian, completion
status, condition, orientation and pages.
Many works however needs attention for description and
year owing to PDL’ s time being attention on DIGITIZE FIRST.
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18. PANJAB DIGITAL LIBRARY (PDL)…
MILESTONES…
Till date (11-01-2013) PDL has digitized 7 Million pages
without charging a single penny from the custodians of
precious treasures of knowledge. About 2 million are
available at www.PanjabDigiLib.org for free access to all.
PENDENCY :
100 Million pages with permission from custodians ( Does not
include Panjab, Punjabi and Guru Nanak Dev University).
TARGET :
TO DIGITIZE 50,000 PAGES/DAY SO AS TO DIGITIZE THE
ENTIRE STOCK OF DOCUMENTS ON PUNJAB IN NEXT 15-20
YEARS –SAVE THE DOCUMENTS FROM FURTHER DAMAGE
AND MAKE ALL AVAILABLE ONLINE AT NO COST.
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19. Panjab Digital Library:
Projects accomplished
 Govt. Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh
 Kurukshetra University
 Nirmal Sanskrit Vidyala, Varanasi
 Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC)
 Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee
 Punjab Languages Department
 Anandpur Sahib Foundation
 St. Stephen’s College New Delhi
 Chief Khalsa Diwan
 Punjabi Sahitya Academy, Ludhiana
 Punjab Virasat Charitable Trust
 The Sikh Review
 And over 100 personal libraries
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20. Panjab Digital Library:
Projects under scanner
 Punjab Archives Department
 Institute of Sikh Studies
 The Tribune
 Ajit, Jalandhar
 Phulwari
 Kirti
 Chandigarh Architecture Museum
 Beant Singh Memorial
 Panjab Digital Library (its own ever growing collection)
 And 14 personal libraries
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21. Panjab Digital Library : Projects completed
KURUKSHETRA UNIVERSITY, Kurukshetra
430 manuscripts digitized.
PUNJAB LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT, Patiala
604 manuscripts and created a data collection of 1,70,000
folios (2006-2008).
CHIEF KHALSA DIWAN, Amritsar
29 manuscripts digitized with a folio record of 37,000 and
establishment of manuscripts’ digital library.
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22. Panjab Digital Library : Projects completed
PUNJAB VIRASAT CHARITABLE TRUST, Ajitgarh
Completed digitization of 650 manuscripts out of a
collection of 800 manuscripts
GOVT. MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY, Chandigarh
About 50 manuscripts and over 100,000 pages on the
making of Chandigarh, which includes letters of Partap
Singh Kairon, Le Corbuiser, Dr. MS Randhawa and Pt.
Jawaharlal Nehru
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23. Panjab Digital Library : Projects completed
DELHI SIKH GURUDWARA MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE,
Delhi (DSGMC)
The year 2008 saw digitization of 36 manuscripts
available with Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management
Committee culminating into 23000 folios.
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24. Panjab Digital Library : Projects completed
SHRIMONI GURUDWARA PRABHANDAKCOMMITTEE,
Amritsar (SGPC)
SGPC offered PDL in 2008 a massive project of digitizing
complete treasure of manuscripts and other literature
and the digitization was done in the Parikarma of
Golden Temple at Amritsar. A total of about 1000
manuscripts have been digitized.
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25. 8. Roadmap for Preservation and Access…
 Go Public : Self declaration and Advocacy by individuals,
libraries, institutions to National Initiatives like NMM/
National Digital Library at IGNCA
 Conservation : Treatment with natural/ indigenous/
modern techniques of prime importance
 Digitization : With complete metadata details at war
footing
 Knowledge domain : Exploration and Interpretation of
knowledge content with the help of subject experts and
specialists
 Central Database : Networking at national and Global level
for furtherance of research in unexplored and explored
areas
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26. Thomas Jefferson, 1791
3rd President of USA (1801-1809) and Political Philosopher
“ Let us save what remains….
Not by vaults and locks which fence them from
the public eye and use in consigning them to
waste of time, but by such multiplication of
copies as shall place them beyond the reach of
accident.”
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27. Thanks for a
patient hearing……
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