Later this month and once more in May, Aluka will conduct replays of a webinar titled “New Technologies in Timbuktu: A Report on Aluka’s Digitization of Manuscripts in Mali”, led by Mr. Harlan Wallach of NUAMPS at Northwestern University.

Harlan and his team at NU have been working with Aluka for a couple of years now to establish a digital studio in Timbuktu - many of you are already familiar of his efforts and work in Mali from previous blog posts.

This month, we are pleased to announce that an initial set of manuscripts have finally made it to the live Aluka site for study and research. To mark the occassion, our friends at Northwestern University have also put up a nice site dedicated to the project; it offers a glimpse of all the people involved and highlights the importance of collaboration and team work.

To bring you that much closer to the sandy windswept town of Timbuktu, NUAMPS has also included an audio recording of Timbuktu’s polyphonic and distinct calls to prayer (the Adhan or أَذَان). The recording is available both in a nice downloadable file and as a podcast on the NUAMPS iTunes site. Close your eyes. Listen. Timbuktu still mysterious is not so far away.

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