DACOROMANICA Digital Library of Romania Bucharest Metropolitan Library Ileana Serbanescu Head of Digitization Office Digital Library

DACOROMANICADigital Library of Romania

Bucharest Metropolitan Library

www.dacoromanica.ro

Ileana SerbanescuHead of Digitization OfficeDigital Library Department

Baja, July 2010

Bucharest Metropolitan Library,

with an encyclopedic collection of

about 1.500.000 documents and

with 34 branches all around the

capital city, is the oldest and

most prominent public library in

Romania.

BUCHAREST METROPOLITAN LIBRARY

DACOROMANICA Digital Library of Romania

www.dacoromanica.ro

Beginning with 2007, Bucharest Metropolitan Library set up a program for digitizing and integrating the documents, that aims :

manuscripts, early imprints and rare books from heritage collections

collections of documents that form the background of community memory and history (postcards, posters, maps, microfilms, news journals, video and audio documents related to the past and the present of Bucharest, documents and bulletins published by the authorities, local communities, statistics)

collections of documents with historic value

documents for secondary school students, according to school bibliographies requirements



collections of periodical publications, newspapers and revues



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In December 2007, there was signed the most important partnership agreement in the entire history of libraries in Romania, between:

Bucharest Metropolitan Library (the oldest and most important library in Romania) and

Romanian Academy Library (keeper of the unique heritage of written Romanian culture and, consequently, the only national library of Romania)

having the aim of digitizing all the national collections that define the image of Romania within cyberspace

From 2008 to 2010 additional partnerships were signed with:

Romanian Literature Museum – for digitizing manuscripts



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Armenian Church Library – for digitizing manuscripts and early imprints

South-Eastern European Studies Institute – for digitizing periodical publications and other documents

In order to achieve these objectives and to ensure both

- quality of the digitized documents to the standards imposed by the European Commission on digital scanning and processing

- compatibility with other libraries participating in the EUROPEANA project, MLB started a program for purchasing performing equipment and software:

- professional scanners for bounded documents and large formatscomputers and graphic stations - servers and equipment for storage and archiving data (using UDO, Ultra Density Optical technology)- specialized programs for digital processing, restoration of the scanned documents and OCR (such as i2S BookRestorer Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, Abby Fine Reader)



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BML set up a professional department for the digital library and started a program for purchasing performing equipment and software



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5 Scanners i2S CopiBook (3 RGB and 2 HD) for digitizing bound documents of formats up to DIN A2/C with optical resolution ranging from 300 dpi up to 400 dpi

1 Suprascan A0 for digitizing large formats and bound documents DIN A0/E format and beyond up to 870 mm (34.2”) (h) x 1250 mm (49.2”) (w), with optical resolution ranging from 150 dpi up to 800 dpi



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Suprascan A1 II for digitizing documents, books and any type of bound works up to a maximum of DIN A1/D (2×A2), with resolution ranging from 200 dpi up to 800 dpi



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TIFF uncompressed files are processed with professional applications

Uploaded files format are for now JPG, JP2 and PDF



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After a long and solid analysis, that took into account :

the standards imposed by the international community of digital libraries,

Bucharest Metropolitan Library chose Exlibris DigiTool digital assets management system for Dacoromanica digital library project, joining the large community of DigiTool users

the good practice of it and compatibility with applications used by digital libraries all over the world,



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Start massive uploading in august 2009, in order cu celebrate September 20th, a historic moment for Bucharest, the 550th anniversary since the city was first mentioned in an official written source, in 1459, by Prince Vlad Tepes (The Impaler).

Some numbers about the project:

On September 20th 2009 we had online: 500 books titles, early imprints, uploaded in complex objects, aprox. 350.000 pages800 postcards in a single itemized collection, in JP2 format and complex objects10 titles, uploaded in searchable PDF format, aprox. 8.000 pages

End of December 2009 we had online:

720 books titles, early imprints, uploaded in complex objects, aprox. 680.000 pages860 postcards in a single itemized collection, in JP2 format and complex objects110 titles, upload in searchable pdf format, aprox.65.000 pages

End of June 2010, we had online:

1040 books titles, early imprints, uploaded in complex objects, aprox. 940.000 pages860 postcards in a single itemized collection, in JP2 format and complex objects2450 titles, upload in searchable pdf format, aprox.360.000 pages

People working on this project From August to September 2009

6 scanner operators in one shift4 librarians for restoring and digital processing output

file3 librarians for metadata2 system librarians for uploading1 administratorfrom Ex-Lh. team, a strong support and involvement

into preparation and upload process

From January to June 2010, under economical restrictions:10 scanner operators in two shifts 5 librarians for restoring and digital processing

output file 3 librarians for metadata 1 system librarians for uploading 1 administrator



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Today, DACOROMANICA contains 1.350.000 uploaded pages under 9 major collections and 110 sub-collections from 2.500.000 already scanned



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Early printed books - Romanian imprints between 1508 & 1830

Collections structure:

Trajan's Column – the monument and era

Romanian cultural heritage , old books, in several languages, Romanian in Cyrillic and Latin alphabet, Latin, Slavonic/Slavic, Hungarian, German, Greek, Russian and Arab.

Books and in future, pictures about History of Roman Empire, Dacia and Trajan's Dacian Wars

Images of Bucharest

Early printed books - Armenian imprints between 1351 & 1830

Armenian cultural heritage

with several thematic sub-collection, available only two,

Cişmigiu Garden General Romanian Exhibition from 1906

Foreign Travelers thru Romanian land

Romanian and oriental romanity history

Texts according with secondary and high school mandatory bibliographies for Romanian literature.

School Literature

Early printed books - Romanian imprints between 1508 & 1830 Collection 1069 objects onlineUploaded as complex objects, showing, page by page, in facsimile, the original photographic images faithfully reproduced.



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Early printed books - Armenian imprints between 1351 & 1830 CollectionUploaded as complex objects, showing, page by page, in facsimile, the original photographic images faithfully reproduced.



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Romanian and oriental romanity history Collection – 82 objects onlineUploaded as searchable PDF files, reduced size, for faster display



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School Literature Collection – 2322 objects onlineUploaded as searchable PDF files, reduced size, for faster display

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Bucharest in images Collection - 124 objects onlineJP2 file format for higher quality display



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DACOROMANICA use for now only Dublin Core Metadata Scheme



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Challenges and unresolved issues while learning and working with DigiTool:

Uploading and managing large files in PDF format

Linking volumes

Provide metadata for separate items linked in a single complex object

Managing XML files and METS thru Meditor

Handling different manifestations for the same title

…….



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For this year, DACOROMANICA goals are:

Uploading 1.000.000 pages

Uploading old periodical publications

Uploading mp3 files from digitized old vinyl discs



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Köszönöm!

Várjuk a

oldalon!

Documents

DACOROMANICA Digital Library of Romania Bucharest Metropolitan Library Ileana Serbanescu Head of Digitization Office Digital Library