From: Kristen Garlock <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2019 14:47:14 +0000

We invite you to join us tomorrow for a free webinar from JSTOR: “Digitizing
printed Arabic journals: is a scalable solution possible?”
<https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2601873722454401803?source=LIBL>
 Anne Ray and John Kiplinger from ITHAKA and Matt Miller from the Open
Islamicate Texts Initiative will discuss the project and share what the
future holds for bringing these journals to researchers.



We welcome you to register, even if you can’t attend live; a recording link
will be sent to all registrants after the session.



- Kristen Garlock

Associate Director, Education & Outreach

JSTOR



*Webinar info & background*



“Digitizing printed Arabic journals: is a scalable solution possible?”

Wednesday, October 30, 9:30 am – 10:15 am EDT

Register now
<https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2601873722454401803?source=LIBL>



In 2017, JSTOR received a grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities to study processes for digitizing Arabic-language scholarly
content. Our goal was to develop a workflow for scanning Arabic journals
that is cost-efficient, feasible to implement at scale, and able to produce
high-quality images, metadata, and fully searchable text.



In a recently released white paper
<https://about.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NehAward_PW-253861-17_JstorArabicDigitizationInvestigation_WhitePaper_20190329.pdf>,
“Digitizing printed Arabic journals: is a scalable solution possible?,”
ITHAKA’s Anne Ray, Senior Licensing Editor, and John Kiplinger, Director of
Production, contextualize JSTOR’s investigation in the broader landscape of
digital scholarly journal literature in Arabic, document our approach and
findings from this project, and report on some areas for further research.
Among its conclusions, the paper establishes that it is possible to
digitize Arabic language journals with a high degree of accuracy, and that
cost could be reduced through continuous improvements in the optical
character recognition software engine. This exploration was conducted in
collaboration with the American University in Beirut and the Open
Islamicate Text Initiative. Tuesday’s webinar will provide an overview and
discussion of the project findings.