West Meets East: Digitizing Humanities at University of Pittsburgh

Michael Dabrishus

Haihui Zhang

University Library System, University of PittsburghJuly 1, 2015

Stanford University

University Library System (ULS) at PITT

*More than 6.8 million volumes*More than 185,000 journal titles including e-journals*Over 1 million e-books*More than 700 electronic database resources

1. A Pilot Project

• Modern China Studies http://digital.library.pitt.edu/e/eal-mcs/• Year 2002• In 2003, ULS received a two-year grant (2003-2005) from NEH and

was the only individual institution in the NEH Brittle books and serials category to receive an award that includes a component to digitize materials for access. • 37 titles (approximately 10,500 pages)

2. Digitization of East Asian Special and Unique Collection

• Two digitized projects of Japanese art collection:

Tsukioka Kogyo: The Art of Noh, 1869-1927 http://digital.library.pitt.edu/k/kogyo/index.html

Barry Rosensteel Japanese Print Collection http://images.library.pitt.edu/r/rosensteel/contents.html.

2. Digitization of East Asian Special and Unique Collection (Cont.)

• Szeming Sze Papers- Dr. Szeming Sze (施思明 ), Son of Dr. Alfred Sao-ke Sze (施肇基 ,

Zhaoji Shi)- a variety of documents relating to the creation of the World Health

Organization (WHO)- the entire collection of the Szeming Sze Papers was digitized and

opened to the public at http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=ascead;cc=ascead;q1=Faculty%20Papers;rgn=main;view=text;didno=US-PPiU-ua90f141

Sze Szeming Papers (Cont.)

Alfred Sao-ke Sze (1877–1958) Szeming Sze (1908 – 1998)

Sze Szeming Papers (Cont.)

2. Digitization of East Asian Special

and Unique Collection (Cont.)• Chinese Land Records- land deeds, property trade documents, possession draw documents,

tax bills, etc.- It includes 220 pieces - span over three hundred years from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to

the mid-twentieth century- only online collection of Chinese Land Records with open access

status available on the internet http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=ascead&cc=ascead&rgn=main&view=text&didno=US-PPiU-sc201101

Chinese Land Records

3. An Exploratory Pilot Project

• Gao Archive - Gao Minglu (高名潞 )- Contemporary Chinese Art- manuscripts, artists’ diaries and correspondences, art groups’

documentations, records of historical events and debates in both visual image and text, art works, underground publications, exhibit catalogs, etc.- A proposed digitizing project of Gao Archive since 2014

Gao and Gao Archive

Gao and Gao Archive

3. An Exploratory Pilot Project (Cont.)

• complex and challenging- a wide range of materials including printed volumes, visual materials,

manuscripts, audio recordings, images- scatted throughout China and the U.S. - legal concerns on ownership- funding- collaborative work among library, academic department, center, etc.

campus-wide- departments and units within the library including library IT, archives,

technical services, preservation, web service, etc.

THANKS 谢谢

michaeld@pitt.eduhaihuiz@pitt.edu