Challenges

As part of its preservation objectives, the German National Library previously digitised particular collections, but in 2021 is decide to digitise its collections more broadly and more systematically.

It launched a call for tenders and Arkhênum was selected for a 24-month project with a provisional extension for an additional 24 months.

Since September 2021, Arkhênum’s teams have been working on site, at the institution, to digitise printed documents in various formats, conditions and languages.

Equipping the DNB with a digital collection

Through its ambitious digitisation programme, the German National Library aims to protect and preserve a multitude of original documents. The project will also provide a raft of new content for its online collections portal. Where copyright law permits, digital versions can be accessed in its reading rooms or from anywhere worldwide.

Digital images of printed works benefit from optical character recognition (OCR) processing to optimise future full-text searches. These digital versions are easily available to the DNB. This project is essential to the institution’s long-term strategy.

A project carried out on DNB premises

Given the scale of the project and its strategic nature, it commenced with a testing phase. This phase focused on digitising 200 documents representing around 38,000 views. Once completed, the DNB validated the digitisation parameters and generated metadata, allowing the project to move to the production phase.

For this large-scale project, Arkhênum designed a tailored quality-control solution. DNB’s teams could remotely validate the images from Leipzig and Frankfurt and comment if necessary. The implementation of this process was drawn up in collaboration with DNB’s teams.

A stand-alone digitisation workshop

Arkhênum used its on-site digitisation expertise to establish a fully functioning, independent digitisation workshop within the institution’s Leipzig premises in record time.

No less than 5 people are deployed on site full-time. “With our team of 4 digitisation specialists, we’re confident that we will achieve both our qualitative and quantitative objectives within the given time frame.” confirms Robert Günther, Arkhênum’s on-site project manager. 

Highly diverse documents

The collections date from 1913 to the present day, requiring Arkhênum’s teams to handle documents in various formats, conditions and languages.

Some are also subject to restricted opening during digitisation to prevent further damage to their binding.

These documents are mainly in German mostly printed in “Fraktur” typography, i.e., German Gothic, which requires special character recognition which is within Arkhênum’s skill set.