Monday, November 12, 2012

The Friedberg Genizah Project (FGP) Version 10

The Friedberg Genizah Project (FGP)

Email update:
The Friedberg Genizah Project
November 12, 2012
Announcement No. 12


Dear User,


"Genazim" is pleased to announce the launching of Version 10 of the
Genizah website.


Following is an overview of the improvements in this version.


A. Images
1. Cambridge
With great satisfaction we announce the recent successful completion (on
time!) of the complex project of digitizing the entire Genizah collection
of the Cambridge University Library, a project designed and planned in
cooperation with the Genizah Research Unit of CUL, and implemented
by CUL Each fragment of the CUL Genizah was digitized and is
currently displayed on the website. We are now in the process of applying
a final comprehensive check to verify that indeed all of the Genizah
fragments have been digitized, and that no image is missing from our
website.


2. Birmingham
The Genizah collection in the Birmingham Library – including its two
sub-collections Mingana and Mittwoch – has been digitized in its entirety
and is now displayed on the website. Our sincere thanks to the Library
staff for their generous cooperation in this task.


3. Manchester
Genazim is glad to report that an agreement has been reached with the
Manchester University Library, according to which FGP will receive a
copy of the high-quality images of its entire Genizah collection, together
with a copy of all the appropriate metadata and cataloging details
available there. The metadata were already received and are now being
processed for integration in the website; the images are expected to be
received here very soon.


We wish to thank the Library and all the Officers and the technical
support persons in charge for their cooperation spirit, their support and
their good will in bringing this important initiative to its happy end.


B. "Ginzei Kedem"
All the 8 volumes of "Ginzei Kedem" – a Journal devoted to Genizah
research and published by the Ben-Zvi Institute - can now be viewed as
PDF files in the website, and can be searched (in a specific volume or in
all volumes together) for a word, and the appropriate results will be
displayed. These functions may be operated by clicking on "Ginzei
Kedem" on the bottom part of the website Homepage.


C. Software


1. Physical attributes of a Fragment
With the display of an image, it is possible now to see important data on
the physical attributes of that fragment, such as external and internal
dimensions, number of lines, margin width, average height of a line,
density of the text and more, as recently computed automatically by
Genazim software for almost all Genizah images , by clicking on the icon
that is found in the list of icons above the image.


This function is presently operational for shelfmarks that contain only a
single folio fragment, and it will be extended to all images in the near
future.


2. Search on Computerized Data of a fragment's physical attributes
Until now it was possible to combine in the advanced search the physical
attributes of a fragment, such as dimensions, number of lines, and more,
as long as they existed in the catalog record of the corresponding
shelfmark. With the new version, the user can extend the search to take
into account also these attributes when they were automatically computed
by the system.


3. Filter Mechanism
For efficiency and simplicity reasons, the default in the filter mechanism
is now "No Filter", as opposed to the status that existed till now.


4. Various Fixes and Enhancements
A number of software bugs that appeared very rarely were fixed, and a
number of small enhancements were introduced that will not be detailed
here but which the user will notice during his work.


As usual, remarks and suggestions would be most welcome.


Genazim

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