Metropolitan Libraries Section Conference Prague June 1-6, 2008

1. Project HISPRA (Historical Pragensia)Supported by the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms Metropolitan Libraries Section Conference Prague June 1-6, 2008

2. Rare and historical prints in the MLP • MLP owns a collection of about 20.000 items of rare and historical documents • Items are not in a good physical condition • Reasons: • low quality paper from the 19th century • environmental influences • damage caused by use One of the books, that need to be repaired before digitization

3. Digitalization in the MLP • the four rare documents from the MPL book stock were digitalized thanks to the foundation of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic • digitalization was provided by the National Library and private sector • too slow and expensive • the MLP was contacted to propose the project within the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms Programme in its priority area – conservation of European culturalheritage The map of Prague from 1938 and its e-copy on the DVD

4. Project HISPRA • Goals • the establishment of a digitalization workplace • the digitizing of the documents from MLP’s collection • The elaboration of the project included • budget planning • precise time schedule • list of documents selected for the digitalization • PR • The project was approvedin autumn 2006 • MLP received € 403.552 = 80% of the eligible costs

5. Financing from the Norwegian Funds • 3 particular „activities“ (budget headings) • Project Management • Support of Sub-projects • Services • Costs are presented quarterly in the Project Interim Report • Transfers of finance between the budget headings are allowed (up to 15% of each item) • Project HISPRA was approved in Euros

6. Budget Project HISPRA • Project Management: € 065,500 • Support of Sub-projects: € 227,800 • Support: € 211,140 • Total costs: € 504,440 Project Staffing • 1 head of the Digitization Department • 10 employees (2 full-time and 8 part-time) for the digitalization process • Hired staff: preparation of material for digitalization, IT support, economy of the project, administration A workstation with a Minolta scanner in the Digitization Department of MLP

7. Document digitalization process • document scanning • images editing and indexing • OCR • export to the XML format • creating of the administrative metadata • importing of the data to digital library IT equipment • HW: 8 PCs, 2 scanners (Minolta, A3, full color scale, Zeutschel, A2. grey scale) • 2 servers, 1 data storage • SW: Sirius – editing, OCR, XML, Kramerius – digital library • One operator is able to process 15 pages per hour The face-up scanner Minolta PS5000

8. Tasks and objectives of the section • 350,000 digitalized pages • Online digital library • First results shall be available in October 2008 Project publicity • Information poster • Leaflets • CDs or DVDs • International conference in 2010 Director of the MLP and Norwegian Ambassador to the Czech Republic

9. Thank you for your attention Contact: Eva Merinska, merinske@mlp.cz A view into the digitization workplace of the MLP