Unlimited Priorities Coordinates with University of Chicago ARTFL Project on Conversion of Historic French Volumes

CAPE CORAL, Fla., June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Archival Initiatives Division (AID) of Unlimited Priorities LLC^®, a firm specializing in support services to the library and archives communities, has completed its work with the University of Chicago on the ARTFL Project's latest conversion of French materials.

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) was a French philosopher, art critic and writer. This portion of the project involved the imaging and conversion of a selection of his individual works that the university did not have from the Lewinter edition, utilizing a TEI x Lite XML format.  All pages within each volume were imaged, and the text was OCRed and then subjected to data entry, resulting in a 99.95% quality level.

The Encyclopedie methodique par ordre des matieres ("Methodical Encyclopedia by Order of Subject Matter") was published between 1782 and 1832. This project consisted of text conversion via enhanced OCR processing, and the creation of images from plates contained on negative microfiche. The resultant images then underwent a cleanup process in order to achieve viable OCR.

Mark Olsen, Assistant Director of the ARTFL Project, commented on their ongoing relationship with Unlimited Priorities: "The ARTFL Project has worked with Unlimited Priorities for well over a decade on a variety of scholarly projects with widely divergent technical requirements and work processes. For one project, we required careful TEI compliant transcriptions of complex legal documentation from page images generated by a collaborating institution, while in another, we are working from microfiche materials to scan page images and generate automatically corrected OCR output.  One of the great strengths of UP is their expertise which allows them adapt to our wide ranging requirements and to deliver cost effective solutions which directly benefit both our collaborators and our user community."

Iris L. Hanney, Unlimited Priorities president, responded: "We relied on our extensive knowledge of data conversion as we faced the challenges presented by the ARTFL Project.  Our experience with the vendor community allows us to ensure reliable outcomes, and we are pleased to have been able to apply this expertise to these ARTFL projects.  We look forward to participating in additional projects as we continue to retain our position on the cutting edge of this technology."      

About Unlimited Priorities LLC

Unlimited Priorities LLC utilizes its highly skilled group of professionals to provide a variety of support services to small and medium-sized companies in the information industry.  AID offers practical consultative services to libraries, historical societies and associations.  We provide advice and assistance in archival content selection, rights ownership, project management, workflow analysis, production, distribution of converted content and interaction with commercial entities.  We recognize that each location or organization is unique, requiring customized and locally-based solutions.  By coordinating a library's project requirements with commercial firms' interests, Unlimited Priorities creates an atmosphere of mutual cooperation while organizing a successful process at a reasonable cost. 

Media Contact:

Iris L. Hanney, President
Unlimited Priorities LLC^® 
 239-549-2384
Email
www.unlimitedpriorities.com

SOURCE Unlimited Priorities LLC