IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Centre of Competence in digitisation

Clemens Neudecker, National Library of the NetherlandsIMPACT Demo Day, Biblioteca Nacional de España

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Overview of this presentation

Challenges to be adressed

The IMPACT Project and its achievements

The IMPACT Centre of Competence

Get involved now!

Twitter: @impactocr, #impactproject

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

KB Digital Library ProgrammeGoal: Offer everyone access to everything published in and aboutthe Netherlands through the internet

2013: 10% of the publications published in and about the Netherlands available in digital form

Example projects:Historical Newspapers – http://kranten.kb.nlDutch Parliamentary Papers – http://www.statengeneraaldigitaal.nl/Dutch Print Online – http://www.dutchprintonline.nl/

Timeframe covered: 1618 - 1995

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Historical text: typical OCR results

VVt Venetien den 1.Junij, Anno 1618.DJgn i f paffato te S' aö'Jifeert mo?üen/ba

.)etgi'uotbciraetail)i.r/JtmelchontDecht te /sbnbe bele btr felbrr geiufttceert baer bnber eeniglje jprant o^fen/bie

ftcb .metbeSpaenfcbeu enbeeemgljen bifet Cbeiiupcen berbonbru befe

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

OCR Challenges: damaged pages, difficult layout, historic fonts … and many more

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Language Challenges: Spelling & orthographical variants, inflected forms…and more

Historical variants of the Dutch word ‘wereld’ (world):werelt weerelt wereld weerelds wereldt werelden weereld werrelts waerelds weerlyt wereldts vveerelts waereld weerelden waerelden weerlt werlt werelds sweerels zwerlys swarels swerelts werelts swerrels weirelts tsweerelds werret vverelt werlts werrelt worreld werlden wareld weirelt weireld waerelt werreld werld vvereld weerelts werlde tswerels werreldts weereldt wereldje waereldje weurlt wald weëled

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Institutional Challenge: lack of knowledge and expertise → inefficiency

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Adressing these challenges: The IMPACT project

Consortium of 26 partnersGood mix of public and private partnersUsers, researchers and industry work together to find solutionsEach established in a large international network

Coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands (KB)

Large-scale Integrating ProjectEU funding: € 12 100 000 (FP7 ICT Work Programme)Start date: 1 January 2008 (extended feb-april 2010)Duration: 4 yearsFrom 2012: sustainable Centre of CompetenceCurrently, over 125 people across Europe, Israel and Russia involved in the project

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

IMPACT Main Achievements at this point Improved commercial OCR (ABBYY ‘IMPACT’ FRE 10 on market)Effective tool for OCR correction with volunteer involvement (CONCERT) ready for implementationNovel Approaches to preprocessing, OCR and post correction available Computer lexica for nine languages close to delivery Digitisation Framework with evaluation tools availableFacility to plug in other tools (Your tools!)Large Dataset with sophisticated Ground Truth close to final deliveryKnowledge bank with guidelines and learning resources A unique network bringing together experts from different communitiesNew website under construction: digitisation.euCentre of Competence to be launched at final conference 24 and 25 october 2011

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

A Centre of Competence in digitisation: Why? Challenges in digitisation of historic material still thereNo lack of novel approaches to improve access: IMPACT and many othersChallenge: implementation in real lifeChallenge: direction of research Need for real life datasets with Ground TruthNeed for real life testing and evaluationNeed for support in implementing the solutions

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Centre of Competence: What**pending approval of IMPACT consortium

Not for profit organisationMission: to support the process of making Europe’s heritage accessible in digital formWeb based international community with small core facility forsupportCurates IMPACT achievements and provides tools, services and facilities for further advancement of the State of the Art in this fieldFocuses on practical solutionsDistributed effort by IMPACT partners spreads risk and ensurescontinuing engagementIncome generation by offering number of resources and services at a fee (mix of subscription and pay as you go)

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Centre of Competence: Who?

Digitisation practitioners in content holding institutionsResearchers in the field of historical document processing and language technologyService providersEnd users (Researchers in the humanities who need access to the content)

IMPACT Centre of Competence offers distinct value to each of these target groups

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Centre of Competence*: benefits for content holders**Exchange of best practice in community of content holders with digitisation programmesKnowledge Bank with comprehensive and up to date information and technology watch reportsTraining on demand and on line tutorials Online support through a HelpdeskSupport in the implementation of IMPACT solutions for improving access to textAccess to the IMPACT Dataset with Ground Truth and tools for evaluation Open Source Digitisation Framework: workflows for digitisation and beyond Language Resources: a set of historical lexica that can be utilised in OCRConferences/workshops with focus on demonstration and implementationWorking together on future practical solutions with scientific communities in the area of pattern recognition, language technology, image processing

*pending approval of IMPACT consortium **access depends on membership level

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Centre of Competence*: Benefits for researchers**

New community: Bridging the gap between specialist research and real life needsBrings together scientific communities in the area of pattern recognition, language technology, image processing with a focus on large scale digitisationAccess to content holding communityAccess to large real life datasets and ground truthWorking on implementation of research prototypes/products into digitisation environmentFacilities for testing and evaluating new tools and IMPACT toolsWorking groups and comitteesAccess to new projects and funding opportunitiesConferences/workshops with focus on demonstration and implementation

*pending approval of IMPACT consortium **access depends on membership level

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Centre of Competence*: Benefits for service providers**Access to content holding community with large scale digitisation programmesAccess to large real life datasets and ground truthFacilities for testing and evaluating new tools and IMPACT toolsAttend conferencesWorking groups and comitteesMake yourself known to your clients through yellow pages on websiteSponsorsship and exhibition opportunitiesWorking together with content holders and researchers on practical solutions

*pending approval of IMPACT consortium **access depends on membership level

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Join the Centre by becoming a member!Three levels of membership (pending final decision IMPACT consortium) :

Open (registration) access to forum, part of contentBasic membership (fee): access to all facilities, reduced fee for conferencesPremium membership (fee): member of the Board, privileges such as freeentry to conferences

Want to sign up?

Mail to impact@kb.nl for information on membershipjoin us now already on Linked In Follow us on twitterAccess through www.impact-project.euCome to our conference on 24 and 25 october

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

LinkedIn group: IMPACT Improving Access to Text

Building an online community

Collecting feedback on IMPACT deliverables (to be incorporated in later versions)

Discussions on topics related to digitisation, OCR & language technology

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

www.impact-project.eu

Twitter: @impactocr, #impactproject

IMPACT is supported by the European Community under the FP7 ICT Work Programme. The project is coordinated by the National Library of the Netherlands.

IMPACT final conference: 24-25 October 2011

Digitisation & OCR: Better, faster, cheaper Solutions of the IMPACT Centre of Competence and future challenges

Presentation of final results of IMPACT & related research in the area of OCR, digitisation and language technology

Location: The British Library, London, UKRegistration and more news available through the IMPACT website:

www.impact-project.eu