Next week, in the framework of celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Leiden chair of Arabic, Brill and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) will conduct a training workshop on digitization of Arabic texts.
Next week, in the framework of celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Leiden chair of Arabic, Brill and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) will conduct a training workshop on digitization of Arabic texts.
In the year 1613, Leiden University established one of Europe's very first chairs of Arabic Language and Culture. Its first occupant, Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624), laid out the rationale in his inaugural lecture'Arab culture has a world of wisdom to teach'.This has defined the guiding principles of the study of Arabic at Leiden University ever since.
The Workshop continues this tradition and will be held in Leiden, bringing together participants from Lebanon, Turkey, Tunisia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia and various European libraries and institutes. The sponsorship of this workshop is an extension to Brill's rich quest to endorse the publishing of Arabic and Middle Eastern cultural content, which it has done since 1683. Brill has published hundreds of titles featuring the Middle East, Egypt and Islamic Studies, most notably the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Index Islamicus and Middle Eastern Manuscripts Online.
Being the ambassador of promoting the Arabic language digitally, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is keen to participate in this initiative which is in-line with its own mission and brings its well-forged expertise in the field of digitizing Arabic text into action. During the workshop, participants will be introduced to the latest digitization techniques developed at the BA through sessions on image processing and using optical character recognition (OCR) with Arabic texts, complemented by hands-on practical training.
This workshop is one of the series of workshops on digitizing Arabic texts provided by the BA since 2007 to many partners including digitization specialists from Yale University, the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), Municipal Administration Modernization Syrian team, and the American University of Beirut.
For more information about this media alert, contact Joed Elich, Publishing Director, at elich@brill.com.
About Brill
Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in 20 main subject areas, including Middle East and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, History, Biblical and Religious Studies, Language & Linguistics, Biology, and International Law, among others. With offices in Leiden and Boston, Brill today publishes 200 journals and around 700 new books and reference works each year, available in both print and electronic form. Brill also markets a large number of primary source research collections and databases. The company's key customers are academic and research institutions, libraries, and scholars. Brill is a publicly traded company and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV. For further information please visit www.brill.com.
About the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The BA was inaugurated in 2002, since then, it has been dedicated to being a center of excellence in the production and dissemination of knowledge and to being a place of dialogue, learning and understanding between cultures and peoples. In addition, the BA aspires to be a leading institution in the digital age and preservation of heritage for future generations.