1- Script of Recording

Gutenberg Bible goes online

By BBC technology correspondent Christine McGourty

@ BBC News online

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1035000/1035014.stm

Script

The Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed is set to go on the internet in full for the first time. The British Library has collaborated with researchers from Keio University in Japan to provide electronic versions of two of the 15th Century bibles to improve access to scholars around the world. It will result in less wear and tear on the originals.

The library has two complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible - one printed on paper, the other on vellum - and putting them online will make it easier for scholars to compare the two.

The electronic copies of the books were posted on the British Library's website on Wednesday.

Kristian Jensen, curator of early printed books at the British Library, said: The books are actually quite strong, but the only thing that can destroy them is being handled too much.

"If we can give access to them while preventing that, it will ensure they'll be with us 500 years from now.

"Of course, if you really need to look at the originals, you will get permission to do that, but a lot of the images are of such good quality that you'll be better off looking at them on the internet.

"We've been able to magnify them to such an extent that you can see details that it's very difficult to see with the naked eye."

Ten researchers and technical experts from Tokyo's Keio University and from Japanese telecoms company NTT spent two weeks in the British Library to digitise the pages. They used technology originally designed for spy satellites.

Dom Cuthbert Brogan, prior of St Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire - a Benedictine monastery - said it was fitting that the book should now join the internet revolution.

"The great thing about the Gutenberg Bible coming together with the internet is that there's a great turning point in technology there," he said.

"With printing, we had the increase in literacy and the possibility of lots of people having a copy of the Bible, not just people who had the money to commission printed volumes.

"Now we have the internet doing the same thing again. We have the possibility of information not being kept to a few, but spread across the world by the web.

"It's wonderful that the British Library should choose the Gutenberg Bible to mark that transition.

The project is one of many digitisation projects underway at the library to aid conservation and widen access. The library recently announced a £25m deal with Digital Library Systems and IBM to "build" a national digital library.

(430 words)

Summary

Most Common Mistakes :

Surprisingly enough, most students had difficulty understanding the recording. The storyline is straightforward, no fancy term is used. However, major blunders were to be found. To name but a few :

-         " The first book ever printed È meant it was a clear reference to the past and not to the present-day Bible.

-         The two 15th century Bibles in the British Library.

-         Names : " Keio University/Tokyo È was misheard as " KyotoÈ : a safe decision to make is to avoid quoting a wrong name and only to mention what you truly-surely heard and which makes sense (Rio was indeed impossible given the Japanese context). The name of the prior was not necessary, however, his being a Church dignitary did make a lot of sense.

-         The role of the Gutenberg technology in promoting literacy and making books available in the Renaissance period,

-         The comparison between the Gutenberg technology and the digitizing/internet technology which help promote research and world wide access.

-         the figures (ten researchers- £25 m) were often inaccurately quoted.

-         Direct quotation of the text will be counted against you really means what it says. Understanding is half the job. You are also expected to rephrase what you grasped in your own words.

Suggested summary 

Sum up the recording in no more than 150 words. NB : Sum up in your own words. Direct quotation of the text will be counted against you

The  November 2000 BBC News Online article entitled Gutenberg Bible goes online underlines how the British Library has entered a digitization project which aims to make ancient manuscripts available online to researchers around the world. The British Library owns two 15th century Bibles, the oldest books ever printed by Gutenberg and plans to have them digitized by Japanese telecom NTT and Tokyo university. The books are said to be in good condition but extensive use could damage them unlike their digitized e-versions which offer the added advantage of high legibility. Scholars working online will find it easier to se fine details. Digitization is also approved by a Church dignitary who points out that the internet plays the same role today as printing in the past . Both technological innovations allow  a greater number of readers to access information worldwide. An official £25m budget will help the British Library and IBM further a national e-library.

(154 words)

Opinion Question

Opinion question (no more than 300 words) : What publication would you like to see on line. Justify your choice.

Most Common Mistakes and a Few Tips :

-        Some opinion questions were unncessarily virtuous, students do not need to pretend that they only dream Shakespeare were online so that they would fully appreciate his plays, etc. Speak the truth, and if your true dream is to see fashion magazines go online in full, then so be it. The point of the opinion question is to argue  your case coherently and convincingly while using as much class material as possible.

-        Some papers mentioned that dictionaries or pre-20th century classical literatures should go online.

There are a number useful sites available on the net : A great site to find source documents :      

http://www.ccr.jussieu.fr/urfist/cerise/index.htm

" Présentation de Cerise

Cet outil de formation s'adresse plus particulièrement aux étudiants de premier cycle en lettres et sciences humaines et s'inscrit dans les objectifs de formation des Unités d'Enseignement de méthodologie du travail universitaire. Il reste néanmoins utile aux étudiants de filières scientifiques et ˆ toute personne en situation de chercher des informations pour des raisons professionnelles ou personnelles. 

Guide réalisé par des enseignants et des professionnels de bibliothèques universitaires, sous la direction de Martine Duhamel, Ma”tre de Conférence ˆ l'Université de Paris 4, et Claire Panijel, Conservateur Général de Bibliothèque ˆ l'Urfist de Paris-Ecole Nationale des Chartes. Cerise est ˆ disposition de tous pour un usage privé ou dans le cadre de l'enseignement public.Usage commercial ou pour des formations payantes non autorisé.Tous droits de représentation et de reproduction préservés, textes et images.

Cerise Copyright © 1999 È

We strongly recommend it.

-     the other topic of choice was dictionaries :

The list of sites sporting dictionaries is almost endless. You should find your heartÕs content at

http://www.onelook.com/browse.shtml

         Our favorite ones are :

http://www.bartleby.com/61/

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/default.asp?dict=CALD

http://www.hyperdictionary.com

http://www.etymonline.com/

-       Students did not seem to know one famous site giving access to etexts : Project Gutenberg. The presentation is found on

http://www.promo.net/pg/

" Project Gutenberg began in 1971 when Michael Hart was given an operator's account with $100,000,000 of computer time in it by the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Lab at the University of Illinois. Michael  [...] announced that the greatest value created by computers would not be computing, but would be the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in our libraries. He then proceeded to type in the "Declaration of Independence" and tried to send it to everyone on the networks. . .which can only be described today as a not so narrow miss at creating an early version of what was later called the "Internet Virus." A friendly dissuasion from this yielded the first posting of a document in electronic text, and Project Gutenberg was born as Michael stated that he had "earned" the $100,000,000 because a copy of the Declaration of Independence would eventually be an electronic fixture in the computer libraries of 100,000,000 of the computer users of the future.

The premise on which Michael Hart based Project Gutenberg was: anything that can be entered into a computer can be reproduced indefinitely. . .what Michael termed "Replicator Technology" The concept of Replicator Technology is simple; once a book or any other item (including pictures, sounds, and even 3-D items can be stored in a computer), then any number of copies can and will be available. Everyone in the world, or even not in this world (given satellite transmission) can have a copy of a book that has been entered into a computer.

This philosophical premise has created several offshoots:

1.Electronic Texts (Etexts) created by Project Gutenberg are to be made available in the simplest, easiest to use forms available.

[...]

2.In this same vein, Project Gutenberg selects etexts targeted a bit on the "bang for the buck" philosophy. . .we choose etexts we hope extremely large portions of the audience will want and use frequently. We are constantly asked to prepare etext from out of print editions of esoteric materials, but this does not provide for usage by the audience we have targeted, 99% of the general public. [...] È

Copyright © 1971-2000 Project Gutenberg & PROMO.NET - All Rights Reserved.

It is well worth a visit.

Created :  Genevieve Cohen-Cheminet

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Gutenberg Bible goes online

 

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Gutenberg Bible goes online