Digital technology makes ancient books "within reach" (online China) niche | Reading | Ancient Books

Release time:Apr 14, 2024 04:13 AM

Through the normalized digital transformation of ancient books, the library of Rugao City, Jiangsu Province is committed to making the reading of ancient books from "minority" to "mass", from "minority" to "majority". The picture shows that in the ancient book room of the Rugao City Library, technicians inspect the isolated ancient book "Yuan History Place Names Test. Photo by Qiu Yu

By entering the website address and lightly clicking the mouse, the Confucian classic "Analects" can be viewed online page by page. The elegant and handsome calligraphy of the representative work of Hanli, "Cao Quan Bei", stands out. Ancient books can also achieve functions such as converting traditional and simplified characters, allowing readers to search and read. Experts believe that the protection, restoration, and utilization of precious ancient Chinese books are crucial for the continuation and inheritance of the Chinese cultural heritage. With the continuous maturity of digital technology, ancient books are emerging from the "deep boudoir pavilion", and resources will be more effectively utilized.

Moving from libraries to online platforms

Click on the browser to enter a website called "Shi Dian Gu Jing". The reporter saw classic books such as the Book of Changes, Zuo Zhuan, and Li Ji displayed on the homepage. Randomly open a book, with the chapter table on the left and the main text on the right. The layout not only conforms to the reading habits of modern people, 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 on the platform's function button can also achieve services such as simplified and traditional Chinese conversion, image text comparison, full-text retrieval, and support for mobile devices. Yang Hao, Associate Researcher at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Peking University, introduced that the platform applies technologies such as text recognition and automatic punctuation. It 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 retrievable text and data, making it convenient for researchers and users to read directly."

With the continuous maturity of digital technology, the work of empowering ancient books with technology has made gratifying progress. According to data released by the National Library, a total of 130000 digital resources of ancient books have been released online nationwide. Open the high-definition image database of "Yongle Encyclopedia", and readers can browse high-definition images and related knowledge from 40 volumes and 75 volumes of "Yongle Encyclopedia" in the collection of the National Library; The "Smart Ancient Books Platform" created by Zhejiang University provides online access to tens of thousands of ancient books, as well as extended information such as author biographies, character movements, and social network relationships.

How did these ancient books move from the library to the online platform? 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 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 is necessary to digitize images, use artificial intelligence technology to recognize text, index punctuation, entities, etc., making it easier for readers to read and retrieve.

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.

Convenient access to resources for readers

"As an important means of regenerative protection, the digitization of ancient books and the construction of their platforms are of great significance." Wang Jun, director of the Digital Humanities Center at Peking University, believes that the digitization of ancient books can effectively solve the contradiction between the protection and utilization of ancient books. Traditionally, in order to utilize ancient books, people had to have direct contact with them, which could lead to further wear and tear on the books and they could only be read in specific libraries or institutions. Through digitization, not only can physical damage to ancient books be reduced, but readers can also easily access these resources anytime and anywhere.

Digital technology makes ancient books "within reach" (online China) niche | Reading | Ancient Books

In recent years, the digitization of ancient books and platform construction have made rapid progress. The "Chinese Ancient Book Resource Library" built by the National Library has become the comprehensive resource sharing and publishing platform with the largest types and varieties of ancient book resources in the country. The "Chinese Classic Ancient Books Library" of Zhonghua Book Company has released over 6000, 1.5 billion word proofread ancient books. Some places have also developed digital platforms for organizing ethnic minority ancient books, such as the Guangxi Ancient Book Library, which currently includes over 100 ancient Zhuang script ancient book base books and nearly a thousand ethnic regional documents and other resources.

However, the digitization of ancient books still has a long way to go. Industry insiders point out that only a small portion of China's existing ancient books have been photographed as image materials, while the majority have not achieved text digitization. In addition, a large number of ancient books are scattered and collected in various libraries or databases, making it difficult to conduct efficient retrieval, related reading, and deep mining and utilization.

How to integrate these scattered ancient books? In early June, a smart library project aimed at digitizing and organizing 25000 types of ancient books was launched. By the end of 2025, this project will achieve the digitization of ancient books in collections such as the National Library, and provide public welfare reading services for people.

Short videos reproduce the delicacies in ancient books

"I didn't expect ancient books to be so 'fragrant'," a netizen left a message after watching a series of short videos called 'Food Light Machine: Suiyuan Private Kitchen'. This short video was produced by researchers Shi Xingyu and Han Chao from the History and Literature Research Institute of Nanjing Library. They reproduced the delicacies in ancient books based on the "Suiyuan Food List" written by Qing Dynasty writer Yuan Mei, attracting many viewers.

"In order to better present the dishes in 'Suiyuan Shidan', we combined the background of history and ancient literature and other related disciplines, carefully considered the original text, repeatedly experimented in cooking, and tried to reproduce the cooking techniques in the book as much as possible to ensure the original flavor of the dishes." Han Chao said.

How to make digital ancient books closer to people? This tests the innovation ability of cultural relics protection institutions, scientific research institutions, Internet companies and other relevant practitioners. For example, the documentary "Journey to Ancient Books" uses interactive technology and scanning technology to let users experience the process of inscriptions on oracle bones and the construction of the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang in a more immersive way.

Wang Jun believes that in the process of digitizing and revitalizing ancient books, humanities and social science scholars should actively intervene and strengthen cooperation with technical personnel; Colleges and universities should cultivate composite talents with both technical and academic abilities in related majors such as classical literature. Part of the content of ancient books should be transformed towards "digital cultural creation", so that ancient books can better enter households.

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