The Benjamin Multimedia Center

The Reginald David and Esme Marion Benjamin Multimedia Center of the Institute of Archaeology was officially opened in 2003. It includes a teaching slide archive of 52,000 slides, maps, negatives and photographs of excavations predating the foundation of the State of Israel, and a computer room with Internet and scanning for students and readers.

Besides the daily services to the teachers and students of the Institute, the multimedia center’s major current activity is digitizing the slide collection. Each slide is scanned and edited digitally, facilitating access for teachers and students to this important resource, as well as enabling teaching in twenty-first-century style using PowerPoint presentations. Up to the time of writing (November 2004), a dedicated staff of five has already scanned more than half the collection.