The Tenth Islamic Manuscript Conference
Manuscripts and Conflict
Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Islamic Manuscript Association
31 August-2 September 2014, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
With an Optional Special Programme on 3 September 2014, including a Workshop on Disaster Planning for Islamic Manuscript Collections
Conference Workshops
The Midas Touch: Experiments in Imaging Gold in Manuscripts
Presented by Ms Gwen Riley Jones
Senior Photographer, The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Magdalene College, Cripps Court
Sunday 31 August, 18.00-19.15
Tuesday 2 September, 18.00-19.15
This workshop will demonstrate techniques for imaging gold during the digitisation process. Drawing on the findings of The Midas Touch: Experiments in Imaging Gold project we will look at how to identify different types of gold in manuscripts and other media, and how best to digitise them. The workshop will include practical demonstrations from the project team using a range of equipment and techniques
This workshop is limited to 15 persons, please register at the front desk in advance.
Ms Gwen Riley Jones
Gwen Riley Jones is Senior Photographer at the University of Manchester Library specialising in object-centred heritage digitisation. Riley Jones has worked with the internationally designated special collections of the Library since 2008 on a broad range of digitisation projects. Riley Jones is also the Heritage Imaging team representative for the Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care, liaising with members of other cultural institutions and archives across the UK and internationally on digitisation, collection care and consultancy services.
A key aspect of her current role is to devise innovative, sustainable, conservation-friendly techniques to safely digitise a wide range of material, ensuring preservation is at the heart of the process. New methodologies for digitising glass-plate negatives, ‘giant’ Qur’ans and gold illumination have been devised by the Heritage Imaging team at the University of Manchester Library. The team are also currently in the process of developing multi-spectral imaging capabilities.
Ms Riley Jones came to the heritage digitisation sector after working as a freelance photographer, having graduated from Blackpool and the Fylde College with a BA (Hons) Photography and PG Dip Photography in 2006. She is also a practicing photographer outside of the work she undertakes at the Library, and has published and exhibited worldwide.
Introduction to Using the International Treasury of Islamic Manuscripts:
The Islamic Manuscript Association’s Online Manuscript Cataloguing Database
Presented by Dr Stefanie Brinkmann
Lecturer, Asia-Africa-Institute, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany;
Project Coordinator, International Treasury of Islamic Manuscripts, The Islamic Manuscript Association, Cambridge, UK
Magdalene College, Cripps Court
Sunday 31 August, 18.00-19.15
Tuesday 2 September, 18.00-19.15
This workshop will present TIMA’s free English-Arabic online catalogue “The International Treasury of Islamic Manuscripts“ (ITIM), created to promote best practice cataloguing, to support institutions without IT infrastructure, and to preserve the knowledge of manuscripts worldwide.
After the general presentation of ITIM, Dr Brinkmann will demonstrate the practical cataloguing process by means of chosen manuscript entries; the loading of images will be shown. The workshop will invite attendees to ask questions concerning technical requirements and cataloguing.
This workshop is limited to 15 persons, please register at the front desk in advance.
Dr Stefanie Brinkmann
Dr Stefanie Brinkmann is lecturer at the Asien-Afrika-Institut at Hamburg University, Germany. She studied Islamic, Iranian, and Italian Studies at Göttingen, Tehran and Jerusalem, and obtained her PhD at the University of Göttingen, in the field of classical Arabic poetry. She has worked as lecturer at the universities of Göttingen, Leipzig, and Freiburg, and started to work at Hamburg University in 2014. Her main research interests are Ḥadīth and material culture, Islamic manuscripts, and classical Arabic and Persian poetry. She is currently working on her postdoctoral qualification in the field of Ḥadīth and the material culture of beverages (and food), and she is preparing a catalogue for the small holdings of Islamic manuscripts at Freiburg University Library. During her employment at Leipzig University, she was team member in two projects establishing a German-English-Arabic database for Islamic manuscripts at Leipzig University Library (www.islamic-manuscripts.net; www.refaiya.uni-leipzig.de). This basic data model has been chosen for TIMA’s free online catalogue “The International Treasury of Islamic Manuscripts” (ITIM) and led to the cooperation between TIMA and Leipzig University. Since 2013, Dr Brinkmann has been project coordinator for ITIM. She has been an active TIMA member since 2008, especially in the field of cataloguing.
Managing Projects in Conservation and Collection Care
Presented by Mr Andor Vince
Collections Care Officer, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Magdalene College, Cripps Court
1 September, 14.15 – 17.15
2 September, 14.15 – 17.15
This workshop will provide those working in conservation and collections care with an understanding of how project management techniques and principles can be applied to improve project performance and delivery. Participants will work through real case scenarios using tools and techniques that will help them to run projects more efficiently.
This workshop is limited to 15 persons, please register at the front desk in advance.
Mr Andor Vince
Andor Vince gained a BSc (Hons) in Archaeology from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1998. After short employment in archaeology he became an apprentice in a private furniture restoration workshop. In 2003, after four years of apprenticeship, he moved to the UK to undertake formal studies in furniture conservation-restoration at West Dean College. After his graduation he worked for the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service and at the same time studied towards a Master’s degree in preventive conservation at Northumbria University. In 2008 he began an internship at the Fitzwilliam Museum, during which he also gained a certificate in project management. In 2010 he was employed by the University of Cambridge to support collections care both within the Fitzwilliam Museum and across the other seven University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) as a Collections Care Officer.