JainPedia

Project start date: 2008-06 Project end date: 2012-06
JainPedia will be a free world-leading resource on the web. It offers translations and transcriptions of selected texts and a wealth of contextual information about the Jain religion and its host society in India. The JainPedia team is leading the digitisation of approximately 4,000 pages of the thousands of jain manuscripts and Jain objects in the United Kingdom. The involvement of eminent academics and volunteers from the Jain community in the project highlights how the expertise and enthusiasm of different groups can work together to produce a valuable resource for all. The Centre for Computing in the Humanities is the technical research partner on this project, led by the London-based Institute of Jainology. Each item is being digitised to international digital curation standards and stored in an image database. The website is built around the Drupal content management system and is designed to display the images in a copyright-protected environment that allows viewers to appreciate their beauty, craftsmanship and religious significance.
Methods usedCategory
2d Scanning and photographyData capture
Accessibility analysisStrategy and project management
Resource sharingCommunication and collaboration
Cataloguing and indexingData structuring and enhancement
Coding and standardisationData structuring and enhancement
Content analysisData analysis
StoryboardingPractice-led research
DocumentationStrategy and project management
Graphical renderingData structuring and enhancement
Image enhancementData structuring and enhancement
Iterative designStrategy and project management
Text encoding - presentationalData structuring and enhancement
PrototypingStrategy and project management
Record linkagesData analysis
Risk managementStrategy and project management
Searching and queryingData analysis
Server scriptingData publishing and dissemination
Sound compressionData structuring and enhancement
Streaming mediaData publishing and dissemination
System quality assurance and code testingStrategy and project management
Version controlStrategy and project management
Textual interaction (asynchronous)Communication and collaboration
Textual interaction (synchronous)Communication and collaboration
Topic Detection and TrackingData analysis
Usability analysisStrategy and project management
Interface designData publishing and dissemination
Web browser scriptingData publishing and dissemination
preservationStrategy and project management
Funding sources: 
Wellcome Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Institute pf Jainology
Content types created: 
Still Image/Graphics, Text
Software tools used: 
Lucene, Apache, Drupal, VMware ESX, Djatoka, Solr
Source material used:  
ca. 4000 newly digitized images from four partner institutions (V&A, BL, Wellcome Library, Bodleian Library). Catalogue of Jain Manuscripts in the British Library (at least) 11 monographs, numerous articles Entire back issue of print magazine (Jain Spirit)
Digital resource created:  
Highly interactive web-based encyclopaedia featuring ca. 300 newly researched and written illustrated encyclopaedia articles of approximately 10,000 words length each Online magazine with News and Events portal
Data Formats created: 
Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), MySQL, Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), JPEG 2000, JPEG
XHTML pages generated by web content management system
Metadata standards employed: 
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)

Institutions affiliated with this project: 

UK HE institutions involved:
King's College London
UK HE institutions involved:
British Library
Bodleian Library
Institute of Jainology
V&A
Wellcome Institute Library

Project staff and expertise: 

Principal staff member:Professor Nalini Balbir, Paul Vetch, Jasmine Kelly
Other staff:Computing officer(s) / Technical supporter(s), Postdoctoral researcher(s) / Research assistant(s)
External expertise:


Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record
Author(s) of recordPaul Vetch
TitleJainPedia
Record created2009-12-02
Record updated2010-01-25 16:52
URL of recordhttp://www.arts-humanities.net/node/3130
Citation of recordPaul Vetch: JainPedia.
<http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/3130>
created: 2009-12-02, last updated 2010-01-25 16:52