‘Lontar’ digitalization drive 60 percent done

DENPASAR: Bali Cultural Agency has announced that its project to digitize the Bali administration’s collection of lontar (palmyra leaf) manuscripts is 60 percent complete.

“That means that of the 3,000 lontar manuscript stored in our library, 1,500 have been scanned and stored as digital media,” agency head Ketut Suastika said over the weekend, adding that the whole project would be completed by the end of this year.

The project started early this year with funding from the Internet Archive Foundation.

Wesleyan University’s professor Ron Jenkins leads the team that is carrying out the project.

The digitalized lontar will be later uploaded onto the website of the Internet Archive Foundation, thus, enabling students and researchers from across the globe to access the manuscripts.