A New Virtual Library for Libretti

1. A New Virtual Library for Libretti Digitizing and Presenting the Libretti of the Her Collection at the Bavarian State Library IAML-Conference Vienna 2013, Franz Jürgen Götz M.A., Bavarian State Library

2. Overview • Libretto research and cataloging • The Her collection at the Bavarian State Library • The project and its objectives • Cataloging • Digitization • Online presentation(s) • Perspectives

3. 1. Libretto Research and Cataloging • Recent research not only on single libretti but also on libretti as a text corpus • Basis: main bibliographical enterprises • US RISM Libretto Project (Schatz Collection) • Sartori, I Libreti Italiani a Stampa dalle Origini al 1800 • Libretti in German Libraries (RISM Germany) • Desideratum: cataloging further collections • New requirements of researchers: direct access to metadata, digitized objects and full text

4. 2. The Her Collection at the Bavarian State Library • Christian Her (1815 – 1892): a passionate collector of libretti • Aim since 1845: “General Collection of German Libretti” • Scope: 5.600 libretti (mostly operas but also about 430 oratorios and 430 ballets) • Focus on libretti in german speaking countries (Munich, Vienna, Berlin), main period: 1780 – 1850 • Collection sold to the Bavarian State Library in 1860

5. 3. The project and its objectives • Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) 2010 – 2013 • Human ressources: 1 librarian, full time, 24 months (basic cataloging, digitization workflow / quality control), 1 research associate, half time, 24 months+ (advanced cataloging), 1 IT-Specialist, full time, 6 months (portal), 1 assistant (digitization preprocessing, postprocessing), 12 months for student assistants (assistance of IT and research associate) • Financial ressources for Outsourcing of the scanning to a service provider (in the BSB) • In-house effort: different human ressources in planning and support of the cataloging, digitizition and online presentation

6. Objectives: • State-of-the art cataloging the libretti based on national and international standards • Digitization of the collection • Presentation via WWW on different platforms (Online Cataloge of the BSB, ViFaMusik Special Subject Cataloge Musicology, B3Kat (Bavarian Union Catalog), WorldCat, Europeana) • Special research plattform “libretto portal”

8. 4. Cataloging • Cataloging scheme based on national (RAK, RAK-Musik, VD18) and international standards (US RISM Libretto Project, Sartori/Italian Union Cataloge, serveral recent libretto cataloges in print and online) • Two levels: • Basic cataloging (composer/author, title, uniform titel, place of printing/publishing, publishing year, publisher...) • Advanced cataloging (further bibliographical characteristics, roles, scenery, reference literature, research on composers if not mentioned... • Cataloging System: Aleph (B3Kat), OCLC-Sisis (Local data)

10. 5. Digitization • Complex structure of digitization: preprocessing, scanning, postprocessing, long term preservation • German Research Foundation: practical guidelines on digitization: http://www.dfg.de/formulare/12_151/ • Digitization workflow management at the Bavarian State Library: • ZEND-Tool (Zentrale Erfassungs- und Nachweisdatenbank) • Excel-Sheets

13. Start of digitization six months after cataloguing (metadata necessary for ZEND workflow, all linking based on the B3Kat-ID) • 4.800 libretti scanned by a service provider located in the Bavarian State Library • 750 libretti scanned in the Munich Digitization Center (MDZ) due preservation aspects • Quality control with ZEND • Long term preservation at the Leibniz Computing Centre of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences

14. 6. Online-Presentation • Visibility and Availability: • metadata available via the B3Kat (Union Catalogue Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg), the Online Catalogue of the Bavarian State Library, the BSB subject catalogue on musicology in the Virtual Library Musicology (ViFaMusik) and other systems (WorldCat) • digital objects: after quality check available via the BSB Digital Collection website; automatically linked to the metadata in the B3Kat; exporting to Europeana and other systems • B3Kat available as “Linked Open Data” → metadata and digital objects also in systems using the data, e.g. the Online Catalogue of the HMT Leipzig library

15. Why an own online search for libretti? • Part ot the project application • Special material – special research options • Connection with libretto cataloguing and digitization of the German Historical Insitute (DHI) in Rome (1.500 libretti) • First considerations: MySQL-database with web-interface • Since end of 2011 developing of a new technical concept: using of search maschine technology and a XML-framework (Solr/Lucene, Cocoon, all open source tools) – building a discovery service for presenting libretti • Portal with more than 7.000 digitized libretti

18. Trefferliste

23. 7. Perspectives • Improving the presentation of the libretti: integrating the exemplar-specific data, finishing the advanced cataloguing of the Her collecton • Developing other browsing entries • Integration of other BSB libretti (Google digitization, Shelf-Mark “L.eleg.m”) • Full-text search in the libretti text corpus (OCR) • Integration of other digitized libretto collections (national and international) => Nucleus of a international libretto portal?

24. Thank You for Your Attention! http://libretti.digitale-sammlungen.de