Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
1. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
Shiju and ML wikimedians, splendid effort! Congratulations!!
Cheers, Vishnu
On Thursday, 29 August 2013, Subhashish Panigrahi subhashish@cis-india.org wrote:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
How about the links to Ml Wikisource for those who are curious please?
On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Vishnu T visdaviva@gmail.com wrote:
Shiju and ML wikimedians, splendid effort! Congratulations!!
Cheers, Vishnu
On Thursday, 29 August 2013, Subhashish Panigrahi < subhashish@cis-india.org> wrote:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 10:38 PM, Ashwin Baindur ashwin.baindur@gmail.comwrote:
How about the links to Ml Wikisource for those who are curious please?
For this work and related, bigger times are coming around soon.
So, please expect more links (to both the wikisource and media) very shortly!
:-) -ViswaPrabha
Awesome!
On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 10:49 PM, ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) < viswaprabha@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 10:38 PM, Ashwin Baindur <ashwin.baindur@gmail.com
wrote:
How about the links to Ml Wikisource for those who are curious please?
For this work and related, bigger times are coming around soon.
So, please expect more links (to both the wikisource and media) very shortly!
:-) -ViswaPrabha
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Great! On 29-Aug-2013 6:21 PM, "Subhashish Panigrahi" subhashish@cis-india.org wrote:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Only the scanned copy is currently available in wikisource. We are starting the digitisation process in no time.
Regards, Balasankar C http://balasankarc.in
2013/8/29 Abhijeet Safai abhijeet.safai@gmail.com
Great! On 29-Aug-2013 6:21 PM, "Subhashish Panigrahi" subhashish@cis-india.org wrote:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Awesome!
Did you have any challenges with digitizing the books? For example, are there any ancient Malayalam letters or symbols that were used in these books, but weren't available ib Unicode? Did you have any practical problems with the Wikisource software? בתאריך 29 באוג 2013 14:51, מאת "Subhashish Panigrahi" < subhashish@cis-india.org>:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Digitization has just started https://ml.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:Samkshepavedartham_1772.pdf
On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Amir E. Aharoni < amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
Awesome!
Did you have any challenges with digitizing the books? For example, are there any ancient Malayalam letters or symbols that were used in these books, but weren't available ib Unicode? Did you have any practical problems with the Wikisource software? בתאריך 29 באוג 2013 14:51, מאת "Subhashish Panigrahi" < subhashish@cis-india.org>:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Amir E. Aharoni < amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
Awesome!
Did you have any challenges with digitizing the books? For example, are there any ancient Malayalam letters or symbols that were used in these books, but weren't available ib Unicode? Did you have any practical problems with the Wikisource software?
Dear Amir,
The second phase of digitization (i.e. to convert to text) is not yet done. But like our usual method, this will be completed collectively (read massively) and rapidly within a few days. We have divided the task among our little typing army into manageable chunks.
However, phase 1 itself had quite some commendable experiences and hurdles.
During recent times, some of us, particularly, *Shiju Alex*, the well known Malayalam / Indian Wikipedian, have been on a mission to try and locate as many volumes of Malayalam books printed ever until 1920s or so. Shiju came to be aware of the "Samkshepa vedartham"(SV) copy remaining in the *Dharmaram Seminary College Library in Bangalore*.
Our friend, (Malayalam Wikipedian) *Jeff Shawn*, an inmate of Dharmaram Seminary College, managed to get access to the book that was kept quite in its own qualified shelter for more than two decades, thanks to a very special and rare library heritage kind to both books and studious readers.
Thanks are due to *Father Thomas kuniyathodathth* and *Father Geo Pallikkunnel*, being the responsible powers of the library for granting permission to scan the book.
The library provided the book for scanning. A 240 year old pulp produce (that was kept in the aggressive tropical climates of South India, much unlike those lucky volumes in the library of congress) had to be treated with much respect and care.
The Library Assistant of Dharmaram seminari Library, Mr. *Shyju* helped scan the book with all the care it called for. His meticulous work produced sufficiently high resolution image of each "spread" (two pages at once) of the 290 page volume.
These files were then to be processed. The images were shared by us over the internet. *Shiju*, myself and *Kevin Siji *spent quite some hard time to work on this process ensuring recovery of all possible kinds of information (including tears, book-worm patches, hand-written notes and stains). We produced several versions of the volume catering to different uses ( HQ color/grey scale/monochrome, smaller but easily portable PDFs etc.). The wonderfully fuzzy-intelligent Scan tailor program ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/scantailor/) helped us extensively during this phase. We also ran several stages of *Imagemagick* software to accomplish the results.
Finally, the output was uploaded by Shiju Alex to archive.org ( https://archive.org/stream/Samkshepavedartham_1772/samkshepavedartham_1772) and also to ml.wikisource.org
We now plan to complete the text conversion phase within a few weeks.
As for the Unicode encoding: The style and practice of writing / printing Malayalam script had changed quite a bit during the 240+ years. However, most of the characters required to type this in are already in the Unicode keymaps. There are a few exceptions, though. We will come to know the precise details (of extra key code requirements etc.) in the coming days.
Thanks and regards,
ViswaPrabha
On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Amir E. Aharoni < amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
Awesome!
Did you have any challenges with digitizing the books? For example, are there any ancient Malayalam letters or symbols that were used in these books, but weren't available ib Unicode? Did you have any practical problems with the Wikisource software? בתאריך 29 באוג 2013 14:51, מאת "Subhashish Panigrahi" < subhashish@cis-india.org>:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l
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Congratulations to the Malayalam Wikipedians - all the other language communities could learn a great deal from the processes you have followed/devised.
Tejaswini
On 30 August 2013 01:25, ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) viswaprabha@gmail.comwrote:
On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Amir E. Aharoni <
amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
Awesome!
Did you have any challenges with digitizing the books? For example, are there any ancient Malayalam letters or symbols that were used in these books, but weren't available ib Unicode? Did you have any practical problems with the Wikisource software?
Dear Amir,
The second phase of digitization (i.e. to convert to text) is not yet done. But like our usual method, this will be completed collectively (read massively) and rapidly within a few days. We have divided the task among our little typing army into manageable chunks.
However, phase 1 itself had quite some commendable experiences and hurdles.
During recent times, some of us, particularly, *Shiju Alex*, the well known Malayalam / Indian Wikipedian, have been on a mission to try and locate as many volumes of Malayalam books printed ever until 1920s or so. Shiju came to be aware of the "Samkshepa vedartham"(SV) copy remaining in the *Dharmaram Seminary College Library in Bangalore*.
Our friend, (Malayalam Wikipedian) *Jeff Shawn*, an inmate of Dharmaram Seminary College, managed to get access to the book that was kept quite in its own qualified shelter for more than two decades, thanks to a very special and rare library heritage kind to both books and studious readers.
Thanks are due to *Father Thomas kuniyathodathth* and *Father Geo Pallikkunnel*, being the responsible powers of the library for granting permission to scan the book.
The library provided the book for scanning. A 240 year old pulp produce (that was kept in the aggressive tropical climates of South India, much unlike those lucky volumes in the library of congress) had to be treated with much respect and care.
The Library Assistant of Dharmaram seminari Library, Mr. *Shyju* helped scan the book with all the care it called for. His meticulous work produced sufficiently high resolution image of each "spread" (two pages at once) of the 290 page volume.
These files were then to be processed. The images were shared by us over the internet. *Shiju*, myself and *Kevin Siji *spent quite some hard time to work on this process ensuring recovery of all possible kinds of information (including tears, book-worm patches, hand-written notes and stains). We produced several versions of the volume catering to different uses ( HQ color/grey scale/monochrome, smaller but easily portable PDFs etc.). The wonderfully fuzzy-intelligent Scan tailor program ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/scantailor/) helped us extensively during this phase. We also ran several stages of *Imagemagick* software to accomplish the results.
Finally, the output was uploaded by Shiju Alex to archive.org ( https://archive.org/stream/Samkshepavedartham_1772/samkshepavedartham_1772) and also to ml.wikisource.org
We now plan to complete the text conversion phase within a few weeks.
As for the Unicode encoding: The style and practice of writing / printing Malayalam script had changed quite a bit during the 240+ years. However, most of the characters required to type this in are already in the Unicode keymaps. There are a few exceptions, though. We will come to know the precise details (of extra key code requirements etc.) in the coming days.
Thanks and regards,
ViswaPrabha
On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Amir E. Aharoni < amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
Awesome!
Did you have any challenges with digitizing the books? For example, are there any ancient Malayalam letters or symbols that were used in these books, but weren't available ib Unicode? Did you have any practical problems with the Wikisource software? בתאריך 29 באוג 2013 14:51, מאת "Subhashish Panigrahi" < subhashish@cis-india.org>:
Dear all,
This is a great success to share the effort of Shiju and other Malayalam Wikimedians to bring Samkshepa Vedartham, the first Malayalam book online. This is a news article which has come on The Times of India and copyrighted.[1]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From a college library in Bangalore, a fragile copy of the first book printed in Malayalam -- SampkshepaVedartham -- has made a leap to eternity. Thanks to efforts by MalayalamWikipedians, the book printed in 1772 and kept in Dharmaram College in Bangalore is now available free on the internet, without any copyright restriction.
The scanned copy of 'Sampkshepa Vedartham or Nasranikal Okkeyum Ariyendunna Sampkshepa Vedartham' will be a major source of information for those interested in the history and development of Malayalam script. The book by Italian priest Clement Peanices is in the form of Christian religious teaching in question-answer format. The first edition of the book was printed using Malayalam types in Rome in 1772 and was brought to the state in 1774.
A scanned copy of 'Albhabetum Grandonico Malabaricum', the first book to use Malayalam types, is already available for public use. It is believed that the Malayalam portion of this Latin book was printed using the movable types made to print 'Sampkshepa Vedartham'.
Shiju Alex, an active Wikipedian, had taken the initiative to bring out 'Sampkshepa Vedartham' on the internet with the support of other members of Malayalam Wikipedia. Ironically, one of the oldest copies of the book is housed in the Kerala university library. Though it was digitized using the state grant, it is not available for public use.
"Sampkshepa Vedartham was printed almost 241 years ago. The book gives insights into the old type of Malayalam numerals. No space is left between words. Also signs, such as full stops, are not used between sentences," Alex said. He said the scanned copy of the book has been uploaded on archives.org, where interested people can read it online or download the PDF format. "We have begun steps to upload it in Wikipedia commons (an online repository of media files). A digitized version will also be available in Malayalam Wikisource," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/First-book-printe...
-- Best! Subhashish Panigrahi Programme Officer, Access To Knowledge Centre for Internet and Society @psubhashish
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