ANNOUNCING
A NEW TRAINING Program for Scholars, conservators and researchers in
the Use of Reflectance Transformation imaging (RTI) for Documenting
ancient texts and artifacts including the Loan of Imaging Equipment
The University of Southern California's West Semitic Research Project
(
www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp) has received grants from the Institute
for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation to establish a Training Program in advanced imaging
technologies for the documentation of ancient texts and artifacts
with an initial emphasis on Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI).
The IMLS and the Mellon Foundation have also funded the purchase of
imaging equipment to support the Training Program.
The objective of this project is to develop an infrastructure for
training scholars in the use of RTI technology and subsequently to
lend the necessary imaging equipment to participants in the training
program so they can do an initial RTI documentation project either in
field environments (archaeological sites, etc.) or in libraries,
museums and/or other similar venues, worldwide. This initial
undertaking should be understood to be a pilot project that can
develop into an ongoing, broader documentary effort and preferably
may also serve as the catalyst for establishing a consortial network
for image documentation of a given corpus (or corpora) of ancient
texts and/or artifacts. All equipment to be lent out is both rugged
and compact and is thus ideal for doing sophisticated imaging in
remote locations. Twenty-four awards over three years (approximately
eight per year) for traineeships will be provided based on the merit
and intrinsic importance of a proposed pilot imaging project as well
as the appropriateness of the subject matter for RTI imaging.
For more information, see
http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/Training_Program.pdf or contact
Marilyn Lundberg (
mlundber@usc.edu) or Bruce Zuckerman
(
bzuckerm@usc.edu).
--
Marilyn J. Lundberg, Ph.D.
Associate Director, West Semitic Research
Associate Editor, MAARAV
12 Empty Saddle Road
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
Tel: 310-541-4573; Fax: 310-541-2361
Web Sites:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrphttp://www.inscriptifact.comhttp://www.maarav.com