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DeirdreDoran January23th,2011May2010TravelCourse Prague,CzechRepublicSILSUNC‐ChapelHill,NC ProfessorBarbaraWildemuth

TheCzechNationalLibraryandtheDigitizationofCulturalHeritageMaterials

I.Introduction:

Thecreationofonlinedigitalrepositorieshasrapidlybecomeapriorityfor

librariesandarchives,includingtheNationalLibraryoftheCzechRepublic(NLCR)

inordertofulfilltheessentialtasksofpreservingandprovidingaccesstoholdings

ofculturalheritagematerials.Theculturalheritageofacountryorpeoplegenerally

includes:“manuscripts,archivalmaterials,cartographicmaterial,printedmusic

documents,pictures,photographs,andaudiovisualdocumentsinconventionaland

electronicformat”(Poll,2008,p.167).Thesematerialsdocumentthesharedhistory

ofagroupthatconsidersthesephysicalmanifestationsoftheirheritagetobetheir

mutualpropertythatmustbepreservedandmadeavailabletoallmembersofthe

group.CulturalheritageinstitutionsliketheNLCRarecurrentlytakingappropriate

measures,suchasdigitization,toensurethatthesematerialsarepreservedand

accessibletodayandinthefuture.Digitization is the “the process by which analogue

content is converted into a sequence of 1s and 0s and put into a binary code to be

readable by a computer” (Hughes, 2004, p. 4). Other important cultural materials are

born digital, or originate in digital form. Both digitized and born digital materials are

part of the digital heritage (Hughes, 2004; Mallan 2006).

Inastudyonnationallibrarywebsites,Pisanski&Zumer(2005)determined

thattheinclusionofdigitalcollectionsis“animportantpartofamaturenational

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librarywebsite”andthat“inthefuturethisiswhatmostoftheuserswillbelooking

for”(p.57).Theglobalproliferationofdigitizationprojectscarriedoutbylibraries,

archives,andmuseumsaddressesthedemandoftheinternetusersofthis

informationsocietyforthecreationofonlineculturalheritagerepositoriesasthe

optimalformofaccessibility.Librariansnote“an increasing impatience (or,

occasionally disdain) for manual searching” (James-Gilboe, 2005, p. 156) among

researchers, and the abandonment of microfilming services in favor of digitization by

almost all conservation supply companies. Althoughmanydifferenttypesof

institutionsparticipateindigitizationofculturalheritageitems,theInternational

FederationofLibraryAssociations(IFLA)recognizestheimportanceofnational

librariesinthiscapacity:

[n]ationallibrarieshavespecialresponsibilities,oftendefinedbylaw,foracountry’s cultural heritage. They collect and preserve the national documentary heritage and provide and ensure permanent access to the knowledge and culture of the past and present. They develop central service and take a leading role in the library and information sector. (Poll, 2008, p.164)

As the leaders in the field of library and information services in a country, national

libraries must provide an example of how best to ensure access to collections of cultural

heritage materials through online digital repositories.

The National Library of the Czech Republic is a leader in the field of digital

content production and management in the European Union and in the world. Various

programs initiated by UNESCO and the EU Commission on Information and

Communication Technologies have aided the Czech Republic in their digitization

projects that have included participation in the Memory of the World Programme, and the

current creation of the a National Digital Library (NDK). The NDK consists of the

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digital repositories Kramerius, Manuscriptorium, and the WebArchiv, all of which are

created and managed by the Czech National Library. These repositories also provide

content for larger European digital repositories, such as The European Library (TEL) and

Europeana. The future of digitization is largely unknown, with variables such as funding

and advancing digital preservation technologies coming into play to create a challenging

environment for institutions dedicated to preserving and providing access to cultural

heritage materials. The NL CR is determined to meet those challenges and maintain the

highest quality national digital library in order to provide users with long-term access to

the cultural heritage of the Czech Republic.

II. History of the Czech National Library

The National Library of the Czech Republic (NLCR) was officially founded in

1777 with the consolidation of various historic library collections (David & Kasinec,

2001, p. 583). The oldest of these collections, dating back to 1348, is the Carolinum

Library of Prague University, later renamed Charles University after its founder Emperor

Charles IV (Marvanová,2009,p.17). The original Carolinum Library collection

includes the personal manuscript codices of Emperor Charles IV, which were accessioned

in 1366 (Balik, 1995, pp. 84-87). The collection of another university in Prague, the

Klementinum, is also a prominent component of the current NLCR. The Klementinum

was established by the Jesuit order in Prague in 1556 in an effort to curb the growth of

the Utraquist movement in Prague. When this Protestant political movement was

defeated in the 1620s the Carolinum and Klementinum library collections were merged at

the Klementinum (Balik, 1995, pp 84-87). Charles University later established a “New

Carolinum” to serve its students, particularly in the fields of law and medicine. This New

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Carolinum was first open to the general public in 1726, and witnessed steady grown in

acquisitions and organization during the rest of the century. After the dissolution of the

Jesuits and the Society of Jesus by Pope Clement XIV, the Old Carolinum library was

taken over by the state in 1777, and renamed The Royal Imperial Public and University

Library by Empress Maria Theresa (Davis & Kasinec, 2001, 583; Marvanová,2009,p.

17). Since this time, the library has not been officially affiliated with any university,

although often the word university has been in its title, with the collections heavily

utilized by students in Prague’s university system.

In 1781 the head librarians at the NL, Karel Rafael Ungar, established the

Bibliotheca nationalis, a collection of books written by Czechs, printed in Czech lands,

and largely in the Czech language (Davis & Kasinec, 2001, 584). Ungar also

encouraged voluntary legal deposit of all Czech books, an institution which was legally

enforced in 1807 by the Hapsburg Empire, with obligatory legal deposit of all books

printed in Czech lands to the NLCR. Legal deposit facilitated the creation and continued

maintenance of a union catalogue of all Czech books, providing the library the role as

bibliographic center for the Czech Republic. The title of National Library was officially

conferred on the library in 1990, following the end of Communist rule. The library’s

collections survived two World Wars and the Communist era largely intact, although

many of the countries resources were off limits to the general public during the majority

of the 20th century. Currently the library holds around 6.5 million items including:

14,000 manuscripts and rare books, 4,200 incunabulas, and 200,000 old prints (Hutar,

2010). The collections are dispersed around Prague in different University libraries,

monasteries and aristocratic libraries.

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III. Functions and Roles of the Czech National Library: History of National Library Roles and Functions:

A consensus on the operational definition of a national library is difficult to

achieve. National libraries can vary widely in size, collections coverage, acquisitions

methods, as well as the functions, roles and services they offer to meet the information

needs of a country. Maurice Line is often quoted for his amusing analogy of national

libraries and dogs: “dogs also exhibit an enormous variety, but we somehow recognize

them all as dogs” (Line, 2001, p. 44). National libraries are generally recognizable as

such due to the sign over the entrance, but what precisely the library offers can differ

dramatically from country to country.

Historically, national libraries have been defined by the functions they carry out

(Humphreys, 1966; Line, 1980, 1988,1989). Following discussions with various

International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) representatives, Humphreys

(1966, pp. 159-165) outlined seven essential functions of a national library:

The outstanding and central collection of a nation’s literature Legal deposit Coverage of foreign literature Publication of the national bibliography National bibliographical information centre Publication of catalogues Exhibitions

Humphreys concludes that the national library “should be the prime mover in library

matters and should be expected to be the leading library in all fields” (1966, p. 169). This

central mandate, that the national library be the head of library services in a country,

dictates that the actions of this library serve as a model for the library system of a

country. Therefore, the national library should be at the forefront in library services and

innovation in the field of library sciences, now including digitization projects.

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Maurice Line began an active reassessment of Humphrey’s list of essential

functions in the 1980s, redefining the most important function of national libraries as the

provision of national information and document supply (1980, p. 1). Line worked to

create a revised list of national library functions, culminating in his 1989 list (p. 307):

Collection and preservation of documents of national interest and importance

Bibliographic needs: creation of and access to records of publications Document provision: the national resource Access to publications Exchange of publications Access to information Services to libraries and information units Leadership and advice to libraries and information units Planning and coordination Education and training Research and development

Line, then the Director General of the British Library Lending Division, was a leading

voice in the study of national libraries, publishing extensively in the field and creating a

journal, Alexandria: the journal of national and international library and information

issues. His focus on lending and document supply by national libraries marks the

transition to the modern conception of national libraries providing access to information

both in the physical national library building itself as well as at other venues.

The emphasis on access evident in Lines’ 1989 list of functions for national

libraries is of central importance for library service today. Recent attempts to a provide a

standard definition for national libraries continue to focus on what functions the library

fills as well as what role the library plays in a country (IFLA, 2009; ISO 2789, 2006; ISO

28118, 2009; Line, 2001; Poll, 2008). The ISO standard (2008) for library statistics

contains the following definition for a national library:

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National library = library that is responsible for acquiring and conserving copies of all relevant documents in the country in which the library is located; it may function as a legal deposit library. A national library will also normally perform some or all of the following functions: produce the national bibliography, hold and keep up to date a large and representative collection of foreign literature including documents about the country; act as a national bibliographic information centre; compile union catalogues; supervise the administration of other libraries and/or promote collaboration; coordinate a research and development service, etc.

Thisisthecurrentoperatingdefinitionofanationallibraryapprovedbythe

internationalstandardscommunity.

TheNationalLibraryoftheCzechRepublicisgovernedundertheMinistryof

Culture,SectionofLiteratureandLibraries.InthissectiontheMinistryofCulture:

“fulfillsthetaskasacentralbodyofstateadministrationfortheareaofliterature,

bookculture,non‐periodicalprintandlibrarianship”(Marvanová,2009,p.12).The

rolesandfunctionoftheCzechNationalLibraryaregovernedbytheDecreeofthe

MinisterofCultureoftheCzechRepublicnr.7/2002of25thFebruary2002.This

StatuteoutlinestheprincipalpurposeoftheNLCR,whichisinlinewiththerole

detailedaboveforallnationallibraries.ThemajorlawgoverningCzechLibrariesis

Nr.257/2001,whichisknownattheLibraryLaw(MinistryofCulture,2002).This

lawdecreesthat:

the National Library is a library with universal library holdings completed with specialized collections, which permanently keeps a preservation collection and a historical one. The National Library guarantees for all an equal access to public library and information services as well as to other services provided by the National Library.

The Decree is easily accessible through the NLCR website in both Czech and English

languages, allowing diverse global citizens to understand the purpose of the NLCR.

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The Decree also outlines the functions the library will perform in order to meet

the purpose of the Library Law for the National Library. Some of these functions

paraphrased from the decree include:

a) it acquires, processes, protects, makes accessible, and preserves a universal library collection of documents published in the Czech Republic b) selectively, it acquires, processes, preserves, and makes accessible a collection of documents published abroad, oriented on needs of universities and scientific and specialized establishments, especially in the field of social and natural sciences, culture and arts with special reference to Bohemical documents, e) it acquires library documents by means of legal deposit copy, purchase, donation and exchange, including international exchange of documents m) it guarantees preservation of library holdings, and restores and preserves things of cultural character, especially from the field of book culture, n) it makes the works accessible via computer network, a) digitization and transfer of documents onto microfilm

It is observable that the National Library of the Czech Republic attempts to follow

international guidelines for the role and functions of national libraries in general. It also

states the intent to use digitization as a means of preservation and providing access to the

important information resources held by the library.

Digitization and the Fulfillment of National Library Functions:

In order to fulfill the functions of preserving and providing access to the cultural

heritage of a country, national libraries are opting to digitize collections. The number of

resources published concerning the creation and maintenance of digital collections is

robust and growing rapidly. The literature invariably includes a section or chapter on the

benefits of digitization that expounds upon the central tenet of digitization— it increases

access to materials (Sitts, 2000; Hughes, 2004; Mallan, 2006; Rieger, 2008). Digital

materials held by national libraries are accessible through any connection to the internet.

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This eliminates prohibitive physical distances between users and analogue collections.

Collections are always “open” online as well; users do not have to wait for building

operation hours or for staff members to retrieve materials from closed stack sections.

The online interfaces through which materials are retrieved can also increase access by

“searching and cross-collection indexing, afford[ing] the reader the opportunity to make

new uses of traditional research resources” (Sitts, 2000, p. 6). Digital images can often

be enlarged, brightened or otherwise enhanced to highlight details that would be difficult

to see on the original document without exposing the document to unacceptable

environmental conditions. This points out another advantage of digitization— it can

decrease the necessity of handling fragile original documents that could be harmed by

physical handling: “given the current state of analogue media deterioration, creating

surrogate copies of a heritage collection is a far better alternative than losing all

documentary evidence of that heritage” (Mallan, 2006, p. 216).

The goals of preserving and providing access to materials, as highlighted by Line

(1989) are the basis for recent studies assessing how national libraries can meet this

mission through the use of technology, especially digitization. Pisanski & Zumer (2005)

examine the websites of national libraries to determine if and to what extent library

websites help fulfill the mission of national libraries. The authors conclude that the

future of library services is on the internet through the inclusion of digital collections.

The large number of case studies documenting individual national library’s attempts at

digitization highlight the recent explosion of projects in this area, for example: Drijfhout

(2007), Marcum (2007), Katuscak (2007), and Andresoo (2009). Each of these studies

points out the importance of digitization for meeting the goals of national libraries to

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preserve and provide access to the cultural heritage of a country.

ManydepartmentswiththeNationalLibraryworktogethertoensurethelong‐

termpreservationofdigitalanddigitizedmaterials,aswellaspreparematerialsfor

publicaccessandassistwiththecontinuedaccessibilityofmaterials.Someofthese

departmentsandtheirfunctionsaslistedontheNLwebsitearehereoutlined:

2.2.5 Preservation Microfilming Department: provides microfilming of historical, archival and universal collections for their permanent preservation. 2.2.6 Digitization Department: provides digitization of archival and universal collections to preserve make them accessible. It provides the organizational backup for KRAMERIUS National Programme of Preservation Reformatting. 3.4 Photoduplication and Digitization Department: provides preservation and study reformatting of original historical and music documents and provides access to historical and music documents through digital network. 3.6 Manuscriptorium Section: coordinates the content of the Manuscriptorium Digital Library, strategizes further development, and coordinates building the virtual research environment for work with historical collections. 10.6 Digital Preservation Division: responsible for professional activities connected with permanent preservation and accessibility of digital documents. 10.6.1 Web Archiving Department: responsible for registration, preservation, selection and accessibility of the domestic web sources. 10.6.2 Central Digital Repository Section: cooperates in creating and implementing development of CDR and the NL long-term digital preservation. 10.6.3 Section for Standardizing and Coordination of Digital Preservation Processes: responsible for analysing, implementing, support and development of standards in CDR (formats of metadata, unambiguous identifiers, suitable image data formats, costs for long- term preservation of individual types of data etc.). It monitors new trends in this field and implements them in repository operation and cooperation in the whole NL.

As can be seen from this extensive list of departments involved in digitization at the

Czech National Library, this is considered a vital and varied function of the library.

Currently,theCzechNationalLibrarymicrofilmsallperiodicalsandthen

digitallyscansthemicrofilm.Thisprocessmaychangeinthefuturedependant

upontheviableforlong‐termdigitalpreservation.Allmaterialsaremicrofilmedat

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theHostivardepositoryoftheNationalLibrary,whichisalargestorageandwork

facilitylocatedoutsideofPrague.Anarchivalmasterofeachmicrofilmismade,and

alsoseveralusecopiesfordigitalscanninganduseraccess.Thelibraryiscurrently

intheprocessofdevelopingastate‐of‐the‐artmassdigitizationcenter,contingent

uponincomingEuropeanUnionfundsandsupportoftheCzechMinistryofCulture.

IV.DigitizationProjectsattheCzechNationalLibraryMemoryoftheWorld

WorkondigitizationofculturalheritagematerialsintheCzechRepublic

beganinthemid‐1990swiththeaimofpreservation,butalsowiththeadvantages

ofaccessandsharinginformationwithusersasasecondaryfocus(Hutar,2010).In

1992UNESCOinvitedtheCzechRepublictoparticipateinitsMemoryoftheWorld

Programme,aglobalprojecttodigitizeculturalheritagematerials(Psohlavec&

Karen,2006,93).ThroughtheMemoryoftheWorldProgrammetheCzechNational

LibrarysucceededincompletelydigitizingtheAntiphonariumSedlecense,a13th

centuryCzechmusicbookbyAntifonarSedlecky.Thiswasthefirstmedieval

manuscripttobedigitizedintheworld(Hutar,2010).ThroughtheMemoryofthe

WorldProgramme,thedigitizedmaterialsweremadeavailableonCD‐ROM,and

disseminatedthroughouttheCzechRepublicandtheworld.

TheMemoryoftheWorldprojectwasanessentialfirststepinestablishinga

digitizationprogramintheCzechRepublic.Itfacilitatedthesetupadigitization

departmentattheCzechNationalLibraryandcreatedaprecedentforfuture

digitizationeffortsinthecountry(Hutar,2010).Itallowedforthetestingofnew

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technologiesfordatabasestructure,interfacesettings,andfileformattingincluding

compression,resolutionandmetadatastandards.Rapidtechnologicaladvancesfast

outpacedthedeliverymethodofCD‐ROMthough,andfutureprojectsneededtofind

anewmediumforincreasedaccessibility.AlbertinaicomePrague,thecompany

responsiblefordigitalscanningandtechnicalsupportfortheNationalLibrary,

decidedtopreparefuturedigitizationprojectsusingHTMLandSGMLfileswhich

weresoftwareplatformindependentinordertoincreaseflexibilityandeaseof

accessforfutureprojects(Psohlavec&Karen,2006,p.94).OveralltheUNESCO

projectwasdeemedagoodwaytolearnaboutinternationalstandardsandcreate

andassessnationalgoalsfordigitization(Hutar,2010).

DuringtheMemoryoftheWorldProgramme,theCzechRepublicwasan

activeleaderinthefieldofdigitization,andalthoughithassincefallenbehindin

output,theNationalLibrarymaintainsahighlevelofqualityandorganizational

knowledgeofdigitizationprocesses(Hutar,2010).TheCzechNationalLibrarynow

maintainsaNationalDigitalLibrary(NDK)withthreemainprojects:Kramerius,

ManuscriptoriumandWebArchiv.ThemainobjectiveofKrameriusisthe

digitizationofperiodicalsandmonographsfromthe19thcentury.Manuscriptorium

focusesonhistoricalbooks.TheWebArchivworkstopreserveandprovideaccess

toborndigitalwebcontentproducedintheCzechRepublic.Theseprojectsutilize

systemsdesignedtointegratewithotherEuropeanandglobaldigitallibrariessuch

asTheEuropeanLibrary(TEL)whichcombinesresourcesfrom35European

NationalLibrariesandEuropeana,whichintegratesdatabasesfrommanyEuropean

culturalheritageinstitutions.

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Kramerius

“Themainaimsoftheprojectaretodigitiseandsubsequentlymake

accessiblefirstthemodernperiodicalsandmonographsandthereafteralsoother

documentscomprisingthenationalculturalheritage(Fortyn,2009).”The

Krameriusprojectstartedin1997asacooperativeeffortbetweentheNational

LibraryandthethreelargestCzechregionallibraries(Hutar,2010).TheNational

Libraryaimedtopreserveandprovideaccesstomodernbohemicaldocuments

printedonacidicpaper,whichweremostly19thand20thcenturynewspapersinbad

conditionandthereforeunavailabletolibraryusers(Hutar,2010).Thestaffofthe

Krameriusprogramareable“to[micro]filmabout1,000,000pagesofdocuments

annuallyandtodigitizeupto400,000ofthem”(Marvanová,2009,p.20). Todayall

thedigitizeddocumentscreatedbefore1900arefreelyavailablethroughthe

KrameriusDigitalLibraryonline(http://kramerius.qbizm.cz).Morecurrent

documentsmustbeviewedonsiteattheNationalLibraryduetocopyright

restrictions.Alldigitizedmaterialshaveembeddedmetadataavailableforfulltext

search,pageturningfeature,andtheoptiontosaveaspdf.Between2001‐2004

about400periodicaltitlesweredigitized(4,000,000pagesfrom35institutions)

andthemostup‐to‐datefiguresfornumberoftotaldigitizeddocumentsis

7,000,000(Hutar,2010).

DigitizedmaterialsarestoredandaccessedthroughtheKrameriussystem,

whichisaContentManagementSystem(CMS).ItwasdevelopedbytheNLCRusing

anopensourceGNUGPLlicense(Fortyn,2009).Furtherdevelopmentofthesystem

hasbeenhandledbytheQzbimcompany(http://www.qbizm.com).Sincethe

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systemisopensourceallotherinstitutionsinterestedinthesourcecodeutilizedby

theNLCRarewelcometoviewandborrowfromthecode.Thistypeofinitiative

enablesmultipleinstitutionstocreatesystemsthatcanbeintegratedorcross‐

walkedeasily,facilitatinguniversalaccesstotheculturalheritagedocuments.The

KrameriussystemisconnectedtoTheEuropeanLibrary(TEL),theCZunioncatalog

andEuropeana,withanEnglishinterface.Currently,theNLCRisintheprocessof

movingtoFedoraSWversion4whichallowsmoreflexibilityofdocumenttypes,isa

widelyacceptedopensourcesoftware,andofferstheexperiencedcustomersupport

whichthelibraryneeds(Hutar,2010).

Manuscriptorium

ManuscriptoriumistheCzechdigitallibraryofmanuscripts,earlyprinted

books,andothershistoricmaterialssuchasmaps,chartersandprintedmusical

documents(Hutar,2010).ThenameManuscriptoriumrefersbothtothe

digitizationprogramandthedigitallibraryitself.Theprojectbeganin2001when

digitalimagesofmaterialswerefirstcreatedandthumbnailimagesmadeavailable

forthegeneralpublictoviewontheinternet(Hutar,2010).Contentfor

ManuscriptoriumiscreatedbytheCzechNationalLibraryandmanagedjointlywith

theCzechcompanyAipBerounLtd.,whichalsodoesoperationandsystemtool

design(Knoll,2009).By2004,highqualityimageswereonline,and

ManuscriptoriumwasawardedthefirstUNESCOJikjiAwardin2005.“ThePrize

consistingofanawardofUS$30,000isawardedeverytwoyearstoindividualsor

institutionsthathavemadesignificantcontributionstothepreservationand

accessibilityofdocumentaryheritage(UNESCO,2010).”Manuscriptoriumplayeda

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prominentroleintheCzechRepublic’sreceiptofthisprestigiousawardforits

innovationindigitizationofculturalheritage(Psohlavec&Karen,2006,p.95).

Beginningin2007,theNLCRbecamethemaincoordinatorintheEU

programENRICH(EuropeanNetworkingResourcesandInformationConcerning

CulturalHeritage).Theproject,whichwascompleted in 2009, involved 18 partner

institutions across Europe with the goal “to create the foundation for a European digital

library of manuscripts and other historical documents” (National Library of the Czech

Republic, 2010, p. 6). The project was successful in aggregating the majority of digitized

historical documents in the European Union. Although themajorityofEuropean

writtenculturalheritageisnotavailableontheinternet,almostallresourceswhich

havebeendigitizedintheEUarenowavailablethroughManuscriptorium.When

theprojectbeganin2007, “Manuscriptorium contained roughly 180,000 catalogue

entries, something over 3,000 fully digitised documents and approximately 350 full

texts…now it has more than 250,000 catalogued records, almost 37,000 fully digitised

documents and more than 41,000 full texts” (National Library of the Czech Republic,

2010, p. 7). The ENRICH project was successful in greatly increasing the digital

resources available online, not only in the Czech Republic, but in the EU as a whole.

AlthoughManuscriptoriumaccessoriginallyrequiredasubscriptionfee,this

feehasbeensuspendedsince2007.Researchersmustsimplyregisterwiththesite

andagreetoalicensingstatementtoaccessManuscriptorium’sresources.

Manuscriptoriumbringstogetherdataandmetadatafrom46partnersbyusinga

varietyofopensourcesoftwareandinternationalstandardsforinformation

systemsincluding:OAI‐PMH,Z39.50,TEI5,METSwithMaster+,MARC21,Dublin

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Core,MODS,andOpenM(Hutar,2010).Theuserinterfaceforreadingandstudying

ofdigitalimageshastheabilitytosearch,turnpages,fulltext,OCR,makenotes,and

savesearchesinapersonallibraryfolder(Hutar,2010).Thepresentopensource

softwareusedbyManuscriptoriummeetsitsinitialgoalsofprovidingthegreatest

accesstohistoricaldocumentsbyallowingfordivergentuseofmetadatafields

accordingtoinstitutionalvariationsinexpertise,subjectfocus,anddigitization

purpose(Psohlavec&Karen,2006,p.95).Theaccessibility,usability,and

adaptabilityoftheManuscriptoriumplatformwasextensivelytestedandevaluated

duringitscreationinordertodetermineitsfullfunctionalityandversatility

(Kligiene,2009).TheManuscriptoriumhomepageprominentlyinvitesother

libraries,archives,andinformationinstitutionstoutilizetheirmetadataandopen

sourcesoftwaresolutionsinordertocarryoutdigitizationprojectsandpotentially

contributehistoricalmanuscriptstotheManuscriptoriumdatabase.

WebArchiv WebArchiv is an online digital archive of Czech web resources collected for long-term

preservation and public access. The project began in 2000 under the direction of the

Czech Ministry of Culture. The WebArchiv ensures that born digital cultural heritage

materials, available solely on the internet, will be accessible to future generations. The

National Library now collaborates with the MoravianLibraryandInstituteof

ComputerScienceofMasarykUniversity(WebArchiv,2010) to collect, preserve, and

provide access to:

DigitaldocumentsfreelyavailableviaInternetPublicationswithresearchandartisticfocus,newsandcurrentaffairs

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Periodicals,monographs,conferencepapers,researchandotherreports,scholarlypublications,etc.

Textual,andtosomeextentalsovisualandsound,documentsexistingonlyindigitalformat

Tools developed by the Internet Archive, and the International Internet Preservation

Consortium (IIPC) are used for web archiving. “From a technical point of view,

collecting online documents is an automated process carried out by a set of software tools

that harvest, index and save data in the archive according to preassigned parameters. At

present open-source software tool (Heritrix) is being used for web crawling”

(WebArchiv, 2010). The harvested content maintains standardized structural metadata

approved by the IIPC and is stored using RAID (dedicated redundant disk array). The

materials that are harvested are accessible through full text indexing carried out using an

open source program called Nutch. Not all born digital materials are publically available

online due to complex copyright restrictions in the Czech Republic; although the National

Library has legal deposit for all Czech published materials, this provision does not cover

materials published online therefore restricting the ability of the NLCR to provide access

to these resources free of charge. WebArchiv materials are catalogued using MARC21

and Dublin Core and will be preserved to ensure long-term use and hopefully eventual

amendment to the copyright laws covering born digital content.

TheEuropeanLibrary(TEL) TheEuropeanLibraryisadigitallibrarythatprovidesaccessto48of

Europe’snationallibrariesin35differentlanguages.Themissionofthedigital

library,prominentonthewebsite(www.theeuropeanlibrary.org)is: “to open up the

universe of knowledge, information and cultures of all Europe's national libraries.” TEL

was established in 2005 through European Commission funding and has since carried out

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several major initiatives to promote the creation and inclusion of digital content from

Europe’s national libraries (Foltyn, 2010, p. 39.). The NLCR participated in a recent TEL

project, TELplus, which concluded in 2009. TELplus“aimedtoOCRmorethan20

millionpagesofcontentinmanylanguages,tomakelibrarydataOAIcompliantand

thereforeharvestable,toaddressusabilityissuesthroughimprovedpresentationof

searchresultsandtomakeimprovementsinsemanticinteroperabilityincluding

multilingualsearchandretrieval”(TELwebsite,2010).The NLCR pledged to

contribute to the project aim of expanding optical character recognition (OCR) resources

from the Czech Republic with a total contribution of 2,400,000 pages of monographs and

1,000,000 pages of periodicals (Foltyn, 2010, p. 40). The TELplus project aims

coincided with the Kramerius project, allowing for increased access through the provision

of full text searching.

The final results of the project show that the National Library contribute

3,496,824 OCRed text files to the project (National Library of the Czech Republic,

2010), quite a substantial amount and more than originally pledged. The success in

aggregating these files into TEL as well as Kramerius demonstrate the NL’s ability to

function technologically as well as socially in international endeavors. The project also

addressed the challenges of font variation for OCRing, with the creation of a database of

font types that can be used in future OCR projects (Foltyn, 2010, p. 41).

Europeana:

TheEuropeanawebsite(www.europeana.org)linksuserswithdigitallibraries

fromamultitudeofculturalheritageinstitutionsacrossEurope,includingmuseums,

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libraries,andarchives.Europeanaisatypeofmetadigitallibrarywhichhelpsusers

tofindfulldigitalfilesfromdiversememberinstitutions.TheNLCRcontributes

metadatafromKrameriusandManuscriptoriumtoEuropeanainorderthatthese

digitalresourceswillbeincludedinmetasearchesthroughtheEuropeanasearch

interface. Europeana claims that “ Userstodayexpectcontenttobeintegrated‐to

beabletoseevideos,lookatimages,readtextsandlistentosoundsinthesame

space.Usersdon'texpecttohavetoenternewsearchtermsatseparatesitesto

bringtogetherrelatedcontent(website,2010).”AllmembersofTheEuropean

LibraryareassociatedwithEuropeana,thereforeprojectslikeTELplusarebenefial

toEuropeanaasameansofupdatingwebsiteusabilitythoughtheimplementation

ofTELrecommendations.

V.FinancingDigitizationattheCzechNationalLibrary Financingdigitizationprojectsisoneofthelargestobstaclesanorganization

canfacewhenchallengedwiththetaskofdigitization.Initialstartupcapitalfor

digitizationprojectsaroundtheglobeisoftensupportedbygrantsthatare

specificallyaimedatfundingbeginningdigitizationprojects.TheNLCRobtained

startupfundsfromtheUNESCOMemoryoftheWorldProgramme.TheKramerius

projectthatgrewfromthisUNESCOprogramwassubsequentlyfundedasnational

programVISK7,whichisnotanannualpartoftheNLCRbudget(Polišenský,n.d.).

ThesenationalprogramVISK7fundsareoftentoolowtomeetallofthegoalsofthe

Krameriusprojectsintermsofdigitalscansproduced,digitalobjectscatalogued,

anditemsavailableontheweb.Besidestheproductionofscansandsalariesfor

scanningtechnicians,cataloguers,andsystemstechnicians,thebudgetalsohasto

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covertheexpensesofmaintainingorupdatingexistinghardwareandsoftwareto

createandsupportthedigitalrepository.TheVISK7fundsrequiredanannual

applicationtodeterminedistribution,althoughthisfundingsystemiscurrently

goingthrougharevision.TheNLCRplanstohaveabudgetlineintheNLCRbudget

toinsurecontinuedfundingoftheNationalDigitalLibrary.

AsamemberoftheEuropeanUnion,theCzechRepublicisalsoeligiblefor

fundingthroughNorwayGrantsandEuropeanEconomicArea(EEA)Grants.TheNL

haspreviouslybeenawardedoveronemillionEurosinfinancialsupporttodigitize

non‐periodicaldocumentsonacidicpaperfromthe19thcenturybohemical

collection. TheNorwayGrantsprovide83%ofthefundingforKramerius,withtheCzechRepubliccontributingtheother17%,foratotalof1,2millionsEURor36

millionsCzechCrowns(Polišenský,n.d.).Accordingtothe2009NLCRannual

report,theNLCRreceivedroughly6,000,000CzechCrowns(or245,000Euros)from

theMinistryofCulturein2009(2010,p.36).TheNDKisalsofundedthroughthe

EEAbytheIOP(IntegratedOperationalProgramme),whicharestructuralfundsfor

EUmembernationsenteringtheunionsince2005.ThetotalbudgetofIOPfunding

receivedbytheCzechRepublicis13millionEuros(Hutar,2010).

VI. The future of digital archives at the Czech National Library: It is a testament to the importance of digitization and digital preservation to the

mission of the NLCR that the projects and programs concerning these fields are the first

attended to in the 2009 Annual Report of the NLCR (National Library of the Czech

Republic, 2010, pp. 4-13). Digitization does pose a number of challenges concerning

Doran 21

access and preservation of digitized materials. A major issue in access is the ability to

connect to the internet. Currently, the internet is not universally available on a global

scale, connection strength can be limited in other areas, and the time necessary to

download large image files of digitized materials may be prohibitively long. According

to the website Internet World Stats, internet penetration in the Czech Republic is

estimated at 65.5% as of 2010. This high percentage of internet users and internet

availability in the Czech Republic suggests that the National Digital Library will be

accessibility to the majority of Czech citizens, although access to Czech cultural heritage

may be limited in other parts of the world.

Also of high concern with digitized collections is the issue of preservation, or

“accessibility over time” (Rieger. 2008. p. 2). According to Teper (2005, p. 33), some of

the challenges of preservation include: “Media decay, technological obsolescence, and

human fallibility.” The NLCR is responsible for preserving the materials they digitize,

and many resources exist to aid in the long term preservation of digital materials, such as:

The Digital Curation Lifecycle Model (Higgins, 2008), the Open Archival Information

System (OAIS) Model (CCSDS, 2002), and the Preservation Management of Digital

Material Handbook (Jones & Beagrie, 2008). A few of the issues involved in digital

preservation are: maintaining the hardware and software required to access digital

materials, migrating and reformatting materials onto current software and hardware

platforms, creating and updating standard metadata for materials, educating and training

staff to preserve materials, integrating digital preservation into everyday library

operations, and creating and following a long term strategy for preservation. Even given

these many challenges, information professionals believe they can meet the challenges in

Doran 22

order to provide the best possible access to cultural heritage materials (Rusbridge, 2006;

Rieger, 2008).

Toensurethelong‐termpreservationofdigitizedmaterials,theNLCRis

participatinginanEUproject called Digital Preservation Europe (DPE). The goals of

DPE are:

1. To create a coherent platform for proactive cooperation, collaboration, exchange and dissemination of research results and experience in the preservation of digital objects. 2. To increase prevalence of preservation services and their viability and accountability.

3. To improve awareness, skills and available resources. The project, financed by IOP funds, will utilized newly digitized Bohemica materials to

test diverse preservation methods. Around 26 million pages will be digitized by the

completion of the project in 2014, as well is new data about the viability of digital

preservation (National Library of the Czech Republic, 2010, p. 32).

The NLCR will continue its work on the National Digital Library (NDK) in the

coming years. The 2009 Annual Report lists over ten research projects aimed at the

development of the NDK, including extensive work on the Kramerius and

Manuscriptorium projects. As detailed above in the section on financing, Kramerius is

benefitting from grant funds from the Norway Grant and from EEA monies to digitize

19th century Bohemical book collections printed on acidic paper: “the suppliers ensure

for us the preparation of an archival and registry negative, microfilm scanning and data

modification, i.e. cutting and straightening, OCR data conversion into text format and file

conversion from the JPEG to the DjVu format” (National Library of the Czech Republic,

2010, p. 13). The NLCR is rapidly expanding the number of digital files available for

public viewing in the Kramerius system.

Doran 23

Simultaneously, the NLCR continues to develop the Manuscriptorium project as

well, with work on the standardization of the internal formatting of the Manuscriptorium

system which allow for greater interoperability of the diverse systems providing content

to the database (National Library of the Czech Republic, 2010, p. 9). This includes work

on creating a multi-language ontology in order to bring up relevant entries across the

many European languages present in the system (p. 9). The tools available on the

Manuscriptorium homepage to assist in the creation of digital libraries which will be

interoperable with Manuscriptorium will hopefully attract additional contributors from

across Europe to this cultural heritage digital repository. One project underway meant to

enhance EU cooperation is the REDISCOVER (Reunion of Dispersed Content: Virtual

Evaluation and Reconstruction) project which will integrateexistingdigitizedcontent

andcreateinteractiveexhibitionsinfourEuropeancountries:Lithuania,Poland,

RomaniaandCzechRepublic(REDISCOVERwebsite,2010).Alldigitizedmaterials

andexhibitioninformationwillbemadeavailablethroughManuscriptorium.

Oneofthemostdifficultchallengestodigitizationprojectsissecuring

fundingforongoingprojectsliketheNationalDigitalLibrary(NDK)oftheCzech

Republic.AhopefulsignforthefutureoftheNDKistheacceptanceoftheNDKasa

strategicprioritybytheCzechMinistryofCultureandtheCzechGovernment.This

strategicprioritystatusenablestheNDKtobeeligibleforEuropeanfunding

throughtheIOP(IntegratedOperationalProgramme).ThisIOPfundingwillallow

theNLCRtoacceleratetherateofdigitizationthroughthecreationoftwomodern

digitizationcentersinPragueandBrno.Thefundswillallowfor:

Doran 24

• Digitisation of the documents published in and since 1801 (540,000 documents, 137 million pages (1060 TB of raw digital data in one locality, 60 TB fast access for users) • Digitisation of historical documents published until1800 ( 20,000 documents, 9 million pages (50 TB of raw digital data in one locality, all fast access for users) • WebArchive: harvesting and archiving of 5 billion files (221 TB of raw digital data in one locality, all fast access for users) • Trusted digital repository (certified by internal as well as external audits) • User-friendly and customised access to digital content for various users.

The total budget of the project should be 29 million EUR with 85% from European IOP

funding and 15% from the Czech Ministry of Culture (Marvanová, 2009, p. 22). The

determination and commitment of the National Library of the Czech Republic is key to

overcoming the obstacles inherent in digization projects, so that the NLCR can create a

National Digital Library that will ensure the long-term accessibility and preservation of

the Czech cultural heritage.

Doran 25

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