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Archiver > ENG-KENT-NWKFHS > 2003-10 > 1066418789


From: "Denise Rason" <>
Subject: [NWKFHS] Fw: [G] UK record office alerts
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 20:26:29 +0100


London Metropolitan Archives, 17 Oct. 2003:

LMA is pleased to announce the final development of the Digital Archive
Video Enlarger (DAVE).

This high-tech piece of Reading Room equipment has been developed to open up
this great archive to the visually
impaired – as required by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Previously, access to some of the older and more fragile texts at LMA - as
elsewhere - has been restricted in
order to preserve their physical condition. Apart from the old standby of
magnifying glasses, it has not been
possible before to get a really good look at, for example, the centre of
large maps and plans for small details, or
to effectively analyse tiny hard-to-read text in old volumes. The DAVE
machine helps solve these problems.

A specialist archive solutions company - ICAM Archive Systems Ltd,
Blisworth, Northants - collaborated with
reprographics officers and archivists at LMA to design a remote viewing
system called ODIN. The ODIN name
comes from the single 'eye' of the machine, a camera borrowed from high-end
CCTV technology. ODIN/DAVE is,
in essence, a large table with integrated book platform.
Over and around this table is a gantry which carries the 'eye'. By using
simple controls archive users can move the camera to every corner of the
document, and zoom in extremely close to get a fantastic look at details
that have not been so visible before. The camera projects the image onto a
TV monitor at a fully accessible desk which also holds the controls.

To find out more about ODIN/DAVE, please contact Dave Tennant, Principal
Reprographics Officer, at
or by phone on 020 7332 3813.

For regular LMA visitors, now you have a better idea of what that weird
contraption in the corner of the Reading Room actually is!

Stephen Benham (GOONS 3620)

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