Digitizing the World’s Largest Braille Music Collection
Digitizing braille music isn’t as easy as just
scanning the page. The tactile notations require multiple steps for accurate
transcription, and their history of touch means the dots are
sometimes smashed or otherwise unreadable. The National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS)
at the Library of Congress (LOC) is in the midst of a
huge project to digitize their braille music collection, with 8,000 pages
completed as of last month.
“Basically, the braille music collection
— the largest in the world —was the only collection not digitized at
NLS when the Library initiated its business continuity plan,” John Hanson,
head of the Music Section at NLS, told Hyperallergic. The initiative
assures that all aspects of LOC could be sustained even if there
was a major disaster, whether a building fire or other catastrophe. “With
digital files archived safely, services to patrons wanting music scores could
be continued by embossing a new copy of whatever was wanted, or sending the digital
file itself to a patron with the hardware and software to read it.”
Braille music relies on the same six-position
dot system developed by Louis Braille in the
19th century, with symbols corresponding to notes rather than letters.
The NLS braille music is part of a free library program for
those who are unable to read regular print scores. Whether Motown, showtunes, Jimi Hendrix, Ravel, or Django Reinhardt, every
area of music is covered in the over 30,000 transcriptions and scores
at NLS, with new additions regularly arriving, such as a large donation of
classical music last December. The Music
Section is chronicling their work on the NLS Music Notes blog,
with a July update delving
into the details of how they digitize braille music.
A DotScan scanner paired
with OBR (optical braille recognition) software generates an initial
digital copy, yet for each piece they need to determine the measurements
between dots in order to precisely translate the physical copy to the
digital. Even then, the NLS team reviews the scan manually for errors,
comparing it to the original and filling in gaps where needed. And each score
has its own challenges, such as graphic scores that don’t
follow standard notation, or weathered paper worn down over time as part of the
circulating NLS collection.
“All digitization has been in priority
order,” Hanson explained, with “patron requests first.” Following are the
“master collections,” which they plan to complete in the next few years. Much
of the masters have a score on one side, but others use what’s called
“interpoint,” with braille on both sides, something that’s harder for
scanners to pick up. Complicating the process further is the wear on old
paper, which comes from over 20 publishing sources around the world, in varying
formats. According to Hanson, NLS has “contracted with a software developer to
create a piece of software that will read interpoint and be easily editable,”
although its success remains to be seen.
Digitized music is available on the Braille and Audio Reading Download
(BARD) site. The NLS motto proclaims “That All May Read,” and
this project secures that access for braille music into the
future.
** All my posts are dedicated to Sir Dr. S R Ranganathan
on occasion of his 125th Birth Anniversary
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming
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ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES-2016 on Saturday, 20th August 2016 at 10.00 hrs in National Institute of Fashion
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