Recover
Preserve
Provide Access
EMEL’s Commitment to Cultural Heritage.
EMEL specializes in using scientific imaging to recover illegible information from historical sources, especially ancient and medieval manuscripts.
It implements these technologies in projects around the world and collaborates with libraries and universities to make the resulting images accessible for study.
Our impact in the world of digital cultural heritage
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Updates from our Projects and
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Sinai Library Digitization Project
2018–present, St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai, Egypt. A collaboration of EMEL, St. Catherine’s Monastery…
Vatopedi Palimpsests Project
2024–present, Vatopedi Monastery, Mt. Athos, Greece. Coming Soon!
Our Values
EMEL pursues projects that resolve obstacles which hinder scholarly access to sources of history and culture. These obstacles can be geographical, political, cultural, or technological.
Overcoming barriers to scholarly access often requires technological innovation.
- Many manuscripts are illegible due to damage, deterioration or erasure. At St. Catherine’s Monastery of the Sinai, EMEL worked with scientists to improve and expand the methods of spectral imaging used to recover illegible writing in ancient manuscripts. (See Sinai Palimpsests Project.)
- Limitations of time and money can prevent the digitization of a large collection of fragile manuscripts. EMEL worked with Stokes Imaging of Austin, Texas, to design a computer-controlled cradle, which supports fragile manuscripts and improves efficiency and lowers costs of digitization. (See Next-Generation System.)
EMEL is a service organization and does not assert ownership or copyright over digital images it creates.
EMEL is a service organization and does not retain copies of the digital images it creates. Therefore, EMEL can advise a library or museum in how best to archive and publish images of its holdings without prejudice or self-interest.
All EMEL projects seek to balance the interests of the library or museum that preserves precious artifacts with the interests of both researchers who desire access for study and foundations that want the results of funded projects to be published. Since EMEL projects often cross national, cultural and ethnic boundaries, each project must identify the optimal balance among the interests of its stakeholders. We call this “responsible access”.
EMEL projects bring together scientists, scholars, technicians, libraries, museums,and universities. EMEL welcomes new relationships with scholars and scientists, as well as educational, cultural, and religious organizations.
May interest you
In the News
Our projects attract international media attention.
Hoku
HOKU in Hawaiian means “guiding start.”
It is also an image processing software created by Keith Knox, EMEL’s Chief Scientific Advisor.
Scientific Publications
Our work provides scientific data to scholars and researchers around the globe.
Collaborators and
Allies
