Virtual Reunification, Virtual Preservation and Enhanced Conservation

Abstract

The digitization of dispersed collections offers the opportunity to do much more than simply image collections. The paper centres on major initiatives involving the British Library which are virtually reunifying significant collections dispersed around the world. Such virtual reconstruction of cultural heritage creates a different digital entity. The Codex Sinaiticus project has worked towards the July 2009 Web launch of the virtual reunification of all the leaves of one of the earliest extant Bibles. The approximately 400 leaves are physically located in St Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, Leipzig University Library, the National Library of Russia, St Petersburg, and the British Library, London. The International Dunhuang Project is a very mature project that has been digitizing material from the Dunhuang caves and the Eastern Silk Road dispersed in London, Beijing, Dunhuang, St Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Kyoto. These complex programmes have broad application to other cultural–historical projects, and some of the wider political, diplomatic and stewardship themes are developed.