Digitizing the University of Pennsylvania’s Early Modern, Western Manuscripts, 1601-1800

FAIN: PW-50747-11

University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205)
Nancy M. Shawcross (Project Director: July 2010 to June 2014)

The digitization of 1,000 codices, documents, and fragments on a variety of topics in history, literature, religion, and other humanities fields produced in Europe and North America from 1601 to 1800 and held by the university's Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries propose (1) creating digital facsimiles of approximately 1,000 early modern, Western manuscripts held by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library; (2) maintaining a freely-available Web site with faceted searching for the project’s facsimiles; and (3) updating MARC cataloging records in WorldCat and Franklin (Penn’s online catalog) with persistent URLs that take researchers to the facsimiles. The project will enhance teaching and research at Penn, as well as make Penn’s unique materials available globally through a variety of discovery points. For this project—with a total cost of $753,912—Penn is requesting $343,913 from the NEH to fund salaries and fringe benefits for two years for one full-time digital data coordinator at the Librarian A level, two full-time digital camera operators at the Library Clerk level, and a processing assistant working 1,000 hours per year.