image digitisation in icarus

Image digitization in

ICARUS

Overview

What is ICARUS?

What do we digitize?

What tools do we use?

What challenges do we face?

What is ICARUS?

ICARUS …

… is a community of over 130 institutions in 26 European countries

… is a way for cultural heritage institutions to face the challenges of the Digital Age together

… helps with designing and implementing cross-border projects

… provides its members with know how and tools to digitize their documents

… operates several platforms that make digitized historical material available online

… Membership and participation is free

Digitization in ICARUS

Monasteriumwww.monasterium.net

It is an online database for medieval and early modern charters

It started in the year 2002 as a regional project and grew since then

It combines digital images with metadata

It makes 550.000 documents with 700.000 images from 130 archives

accessible over the internet

It uses current web-technologies to create a collaborative editing /

research environment

Focus: charters

Medieval and early modern documents

Legal documents that record transactions / grants of rights

An main source for historical research

Difficult to use due to their nature

One of the earliest objects for digitization

Main characteristics

Objects of various sizes and physical conditions

Single sheet documents

Only accessible in situ

Fragile and very valuable objects

Local digitization necessary

Very limited funds

Acceptable compromise between speed and quality

Matriculamatricula-online.eu

Parish registers

from Austria,

Germany and Poland

Over 4 Million

digitized pages

Started in 2009

Digitization outsourced

Parish registers

Record births, marriages and deaths in a parish

Start to appear in the 16th century

Still in use today

Often still in possession of the origin parish

Very important for historic and genealogic research

Main characteristics

Rather uniform size and physical appearance

Varying physical condition

Books

Most of the time no special conservation demands

Can be transported

Manuscriptsvarious small projects / contributions

Main characteristics

High restrictions for digitization

Books of various sizes but still similarTightly bound, so limited opening angle

No transport possible

Most of the time small projects

Equipment

Book scanner+ Pro: Easy to use, fixed resolution (400DPI), high speed

- Con: Fixed lighting, limited size and flexibility

Limit: size

Limit: inflexible lighting

Uneven surfaces can cause problems

Glass plate as a tool

DSLR with lighting and tripod+ Pro: Flexible use, cheap price, highly transportable

- Con: Resolution depending on size, know-how required

Limit: relative resolution

9 MP (20 x 20 mm)

23 MP (20 x 20 mm)

So: no one size fits allEven a cheap camera might already give acceptable results

Book stand for DSLR+ Pro: Combines advantages of scanner and camera

- Con: Combines disadvantages of scanner and camera

Semi automatic scanner+ Pro: High speed, good quality

- Con: Only usable for specific objects, quality management

Limit: outsourcing / quality control

Challenges to overcome

Challenge: dimensions Sizes mostly between DIN A7 (70 x 105 mm) and A1 (594 × 841 mm)

Challenge: layoutText on top and under the plica

Challenge: Thickness / binding

Difficult to open, some parts not visible

Challenge: state of preservation

Material damage Acidic colors

Challenge: Contrast

The color matters

Conclusion: plan ahead before you digitize

Any questions?daniel.jeller@icar-us.eu

www.icar-us.eu