Eureka! Dublin Core based metadata supports the Archimedes Palimpsest Manuscript Imaging Program

Abstract

Digital imaging of the Archimedes Palimpsest offers a complex set of metadata challenges. The thousand-year-old manuscript contains the earliest known copies of some of Archimedes unique mathematical works, overwritten with a book of prayer. Digital imaging of this manuscript is yielding a large and rich volume of data. The Archimedes Palimpsest team has developed the Archimedes Palimpsest Metadata Standard using the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set as the core metadata for this effort. The need for spatial metadata to support a complex range of image data has required the integration of metadata standards based on those originally developed for geospatial imaging from space. The result is a unique manuscript imaging standard to support digital "scriptospatial" data accessible by a range of users on the Internet as part of this dynamic, ongoing program.