The Digital Blog

Author: Claus Gravenhorst
at Colloquium of Library Information Employees of the V4+ Countries

Accessible information is a basic need of the society or to put it another way … of everyone. Usually the original can only be accessed in printed form or microfilm/microfiche, which means search, use and distribution of the information is time-consuming, cost-intensive and not available for everyone. The digitisation and conversion of printed items into electronic formats were, until recently, complex and cost-intensive. Insufficient budgets and/or resources prevented extensive transformations to digital repositories. Reliable methods for long-term security and the storage of these enormous data sets were virtually unavailable.

As the result of the METAe project (http://meta-e.uibk.ac.at), funded by the European Commission through the 5th Framework Research Program, CCS Content Conversion Specialists GmbH, Germany developed a comprehensive software solution, available on the market since 2003 under the brand name docWORKS. It is a production tool, which offers an integrated workflow for automated, structured conversion of printed documents into digital objects, which describe the physical and logical document structure by consistent use of international XML standards. These XML documents are to be equated concerning quality and structure with born digital documents and can be transferred to digital library systems, portals, document, content and knowledge management systems as well as virtually any media output device.
The main goal achieved through the project was the automatic generation of administrative, descriptive and structural metadata. The advantages of highly structured documents:
As “digital original” they meet the requirements for a digital long-term storage in repositories
With the use of XML open metadata standards, the data can be transformed and migrated to meet current and future requirements (more…)

Quelle: DW-WORLD

Das Wissen der Welt wird immer noch in Büchern aufbewahrt. Die digitale Revolution hat bisher nur einen Bruchteil dessen erfasst, was Autoren durch die Jahrhunderte zu Papier brachten. Ausgerechnet die altehrwürdige British Library in London möchte das nun ändern - und das aus konservatorischen Gründen.

Gerade den ältesten und wertvollsten Büchern droht der Zerfall. Lesen, geschweige denn ausleihen, darf sie darum schon lange niemand mehr. Digitalisierung soll das Problem lösen und den Inhalt der historischen Bücher zudem online verfügbar machen. Die Hamburger Hightech-Firma CCS erhielt den Zuschlag, in den nächsten zwei Jahren unglaubliche 25 Millionen Buchseiten aus den Beständen der British Library digital zu erfassen und sie - in Zusammenarbeit mit US-Softwarekonzern Microsoft – im Internet zu veröffentlichen. Inzwischen läuft im Herzen der Londoner Bibliothek - Tag und Nacht - eine Batterie unterschiedlicher Hochleistungsscanner. MiG-Reporter Patrick Benning beobachtete die “Content Conversion Specialists” bei Ihrer ebenso filigranen wie spektakulären Arbeit.

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