Moving from libraries to online platforms, digital technology makes ancient books accessible

2023-07-12

Enter the website, click the mouse, and the Confucian classic The Analects of Confucius can be read online page by page. The elegant and beautiful calligraphy of the representative work of Chinese scribes, Cao Quanbei, is in front of us. The ancient books can also realize the conversion of Traditional Chinese characters and Ryakuji, so that readers can query and read. Experts believe that the vast expanse of ancient Chinese literature is crucial for the preservation, restoration, and utilization of precious ancient texts, as it is crucial for the continuation and inheritance of the Chinese cultural heritage. With the continuous maturity of digital technology, ancient books are stepping out of the "purdah pavilion" and resources will be more effectively utilized. Moving from the library to the online platform, click on the browser and enter a website called "Identifying Classic Ancient Books". The reporter saw ancient books such as "The Book of Changes", "Zuo Zhuan", and "Book of Rites" displayed on the homepage. Randomly open a book, with a chapter directory on the left and the main text on the right. The layout not only conforms to modern reading habits, but also restores the reading beauty of ancient paper. This is a digital ancient book platform jointly developed by the Digital Humanities Research Center of Peking University and ByteDance. Since its release in October last year, more than 1200 ancient books have been online for free viewing by the public. Unlike some digital platforms that only provide ancient book images, clicking the function button of the platform can also realize simple and traditional Chinese conversion, image text comparison, Full-text search, mobile terminal support and other services. Yang Hao, an associate researcher at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Peking University, introduced that the platform applies technologies such as text recognition and automatic punctuation, which not only extracts and organizes text from photocopies, but also marks information such as people's names and place names in the text. We use artificial intelligence technology to process ancient books from previous images into searchable text and data, making it easier for researchers and users to read directly. With the continuous maturity of digital technology, technology has made gratifying progress in empowering the work of ancient books. According to data released by the National Library, a total of 130000 ancient book digital resources have been released online nationwide. Open the high-definition image database of Yongle Encyclopedia (Volume I), readers can browse the high-definition images and related knowledge of 40 and 75 volumes of Yongle Encyclopedia in the National Library; The "Smart Ancient Books Platform" created by Zhejiang University can access tens of thousands of ancient books online, as well as extended information such as author biographies, character trajectories, and social network relationships. How did these ancient books "move" from library warehouses to online platforms? Yang Hao introduced that the process of digitizing ancient books is divided into two steps. Firstly, scan the ancient books. The scanning of ancient books uses a dedicated non-contact scanner, which uses a high pixel camera to take photos without pressing on the pages of ancient books as much as possible; The light source used is a UV resistant LED cold light source, reducing damage to ancient books. Secondly, it involves data processing of images, using artificial intelligence technology to recognize text, and indexing punctuation, entities, etc. for the convenience of readers' reading and retrieval. Reducing the error rate of artificial intelligence recognition is also important. The relevant person in charge of the ByteDance Public Welfare Ancient Books Project said that the staff with professional knowledge in Chinese, history and other fields who are interested in ancient books have spontaneously set up a volunteer team of 2600 people to participate in the proofreading of ancient books. As an important means of regenerative protection, the digitization of ancient books and the construction of their platforms are of great significance, "said Wang, director of the Digital Humanities Center at Peking University

Edit:XiaoWanNing    Responsible editor:YingLing

Source:People's Daily

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