The manuscript is now as public as it gets. The scan is archival quality, which means you can see scuffs, stains, and so on at a high zoom rate. There are a lot of similar digitization projects taking place all over the world, providing the general population access to documents that until recently have required a great deal of work in terms of access permissions and travel to get to.The Bodleian Libraries are the proud custodian of Maimonides' authorized manuscript copy of his major halachic work, the Mishneh Torah, a code meant to collect disparate rulings and to present them "succinctly and clearly, so that all the Oral Torah will be easily accessible to all." ... A later owner of the copy, a certain Eleazar, son of Perahya, stipulated in his will that this and the other volumes of the Code (now lost) should remain in the public domain for consultation....
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Awesome Archival!
Our Awesome Archival today is a digitization project that allows anyone access to Maimonides's code of Jewish Law. The following excerpt is from Language Hat.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Smatterings
With Winter break seems to have come a blogging break. I think I mentioned that even though I am out of school for a while I feel busier than I ever was, and that remains true. So, here is a quick 'I'm not dead' post to provide a quick overview of what I've been doing for the past two weeks.
I've started Chinese lessons. Chinese is one of those languages that is almost impossible to break into for me. I've tried learning half a dozen times now, and nothing sticks. The problem lies in the fact that pronunciation alone is such a struggle. With languages like Japanese and French the sound of the language came naturally to me. Not so Chinese. Too many minimal pairs that do not exist in English. Just tone itself is enough to make things difficult, but with x j s q etc also being hard to hear and pronounce for an English speaker, Chinese is a real devil of a language. It almost makes me miss Japanese.
I'm now hard at work as a Wrangler for Anythink libraries, an amazing library system that has done (almost) everything right in how it has reinvented itself into a 21st century library. Our library director was elected Librarian of the year by the ALA, and the district itself earned the 2010 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, which means our director will be meeting with the president and first lady. The branch I work at is relatively small, but the materials are checked out in such a rapid basis that with two or three of us working full tilt we can barely keep up with the circulation. I was angsting for quite a while over not being able to find a job, so now I am extremely happy that I stuck it out and finally landed in such a perfect position.
The job itself is great (books everywhere!) my co-workers are awesome, my bosses are ridiculously nice, and so on and so forth. The only things that could make the job better is if the branch was closer (It's a 45min drive away) and if they let us work in larger chunks of shifts. 5 hours is the max per day, which means a -lot- of driving, a short shift, and then a lot of driving again. This makes it somewhat difficult to schedule the other things I have going on.
The internship has unfortunately been put on a sort of hold (though I have free time again tomorrow, woo!) simply because Boulder is even further than work, and I need a whole day dedicated to going up there if it's going to be worth my time at all. For a month and change I haven't had that whole day. Quite disappointing, but I'm looking for things to improve on that front soon.
I occurs to me that I have spent most of my brake doing non Archival type stuff. I've been taking advantage of the time to do things like write 300+ prompts for a fantasy world building challenge, and NaNo, and so on and so forth. I feel like I should be using my time more constructively towards my future employment... but writing a ton of questions like "What body modification is taboo in your world and what is wide spread?" Is so much damn fun. I've finished that project, and will probably be including it in whatever website I build when I find the time for that. This is where I look at my to-do list and laugh.
While working at the 'cat desk' at the local shelter I was told that they are looking for foster parents to keep small mammals, like guinea pigs and rats and such. I can't bring a cat or dog home due to Lord Rufus and apartment restrictions, but a small animal should be alright, so I've applied, will be going through an interview, and then hopefully will be helping a little critter acclimatizes itself to human interaction, which will make it more appealing to prospective adopters.
About the same time I was given a book by a fellow volunteer. I had been talking to her about school, and the fact that I was studying to become an archivist, so one day she gives me this book called The Collectors by David Baldacci. Baldacci is one of those big names in the world of the spy/intrigue novel. I've shelved many of his books, but have never read a word of any of them, mostly because of my bias against any fiction written before the 1940s. But, since this book was being given to me I figured I had to at least make a go of reading it.
Turned out that wasn't going to happen. I got something like 5 chapters in (read: 10 pages) before putting it down and deciding that I had much better ways to waste my time. You would think a book that apparently revolves around the Archives of the US Government would be interesting, but the writing is so absolutely amateur that the wonder that should naturally go hand in hand with materials recording the very birth of our nation has been neatly removed by bluntly telling prose and a cardboard cast. Definitely not going to bother.
There is an ice skating rink on campus that has free skate for an hour on most days of the week. Because I'm a full time student, admission is free for me, though it still costs to rent shoes, but 3 dollars is a nice price for an hour of good exercise and slamming into rink walls. I still need to learn how to stop...
I've started Chinese lessons. Chinese is one of those languages that is almost impossible to break into for me. I've tried learning half a dozen times now, and nothing sticks. The problem lies in the fact that pronunciation alone is such a struggle. With languages like Japanese and French the sound of the language came naturally to me. Not so Chinese. Too many minimal pairs that do not exist in English. Just tone itself is enough to make things difficult, but with x j s q etc also being hard to hear and pronounce for an English speaker, Chinese is a real devil of a language. It almost makes me miss Japanese.
I'm now hard at work as a Wrangler for Anythink libraries, an amazing library system that has done (almost) everything right in how it has reinvented itself into a 21st century library. Our library director was elected Librarian of the year by the ALA, and the district itself earned the 2010 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, which means our director will be meeting with the president and first lady. The branch I work at is relatively small, but the materials are checked out in such a rapid basis that with two or three of us working full tilt we can barely keep up with the circulation. I was angsting for quite a while over not being able to find a job, so now I am extremely happy that I stuck it out and finally landed in such a perfect position.
The job itself is great (books everywhere!) my co-workers are awesome, my bosses are ridiculously nice, and so on and so forth. The only things that could make the job better is if the branch was closer (It's a 45min drive away) and if they let us work in larger chunks of shifts. 5 hours is the max per day, which means a -lot- of driving, a short shift, and then a lot of driving again. This makes it somewhat difficult to schedule the other things I have going on.
The internship has unfortunately been put on a sort of hold (though I have free time again tomorrow, woo!) simply because Boulder is even further than work, and I need a whole day dedicated to going up there if it's going to be worth my time at all. For a month and change I haven't had that whole day. Quite disappointing, but I'm looking for things to improve on that front soon.
I occurs to me that I have spent most of my brake doing non Archival type stuff. I've been taking advantage of the time to do things like write 300+ prompts for a fantasy world building challenge, and NaNo, and so on and so forth. I feel like I should be using my time more constructively towards my future employment... but writing a ton of questions like "What body modification is taboo in your world and what is wide spread?" Is so much damn fun. I've finished that project, and will probably be including it in whatever website I build when I find the time for that. This is where I look at my to-do list and laugh.
While working at the 'cat desk' at the local shelter I was told that they are looking for foster parents to keep small mammals, like guinea pigs and rats and such. I can't bring a cat or dog home due to Lord Rufus and apartment restrictions, but a small animal should be alright, so I've applied, will be going through an interview, and then hopefully will be helping a little critter acclimatizes itself to human interaction, which will make it more appealing to prospective adopters.
About the same time I was given a book by a fellow volunteer. I had been talking to her about school, and the fact that I was studying to become an archivist, so one day she gives me this book called The Collectors by David Baldacci. Baldacci is one of those big names in the world of the spy/intrigue novel. I've shelved many of his books, but have never read a word of any of them, mostly because of my bias against any fiction written before the 1940s. But, since this book was being given to me I figured I had to at least make a go of reading it.
Turned out that wasn't going to happen. I got something like 5 chapters in (read: 10 pages) before putting it down and deciding that I had much better ways to waste my time. You would think a book that apparently revolves around the Archives of the US Government would be interesting, but the writing is so absolutely amateur that the wonder that should naturally go hand in hand with materials recording the very birth of our nation has been neatly removed by bluntly telling prose and a cardboard cast. Definitely not going to bother.
There is an ice skating rink on campus that has free skate for an hour on most days of the week. Because I'm a full time student, admission is free for me, though it still costs to rent shoes, but 3 dollars is a nice price for an hour of good exercise and slamming into rink walls. I still need to learn how to stop...
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