Digitization and online accessibility of cultural content and digital preservation
1)Culture Information Systems Centre (KISC) and the National Archives of Latvia is implementing the project “2nd stage of the development and implementation of the Unified State Archives Information System” aimed at the development of the joint national archives information system. It includes improvement of existing IS modules which support digitisation of archival documents, electronic archiving, preservation, access and development of e-services both for public and state institutions. 2)KISC and the MoC is implementing the project “2nd stage of the development and implementation of the Joint Catalogue of National Holding of Museums (JCNHM)” aimed at improvement of existing information system of the JCNHM as well as development of new functionality. The objective of the project is to supply museum specialists with necessary digitisation equipment and train them to use it in digitisation processes. 3)In 2013 the National Library of Latvia (LNB) has finished the project “Development of the Digital Library – 2nd stage" developing digital library infrastructure and digitisation of the materials held by LNB. During the project 4’312’500 pages of books, journals, magazines and newspapers were digitised and made available either publicly or within the network of LNB and public libraries, according to copyright status. 4)LNB has implemented the project "Development of Digital Library services" aimed at the development of information systems for providing services of digital library. 5)KISC is implementing the project “Ensuring the digital availability of Latvian audio-visual material” aimed at the digitisation and online accessibility of audio-visual materials of Latvian TV and audio materials of Latvian Radio. 6)KISC and National Film Centre is implementing the project “Unified cultural and memory institutions’ information management system” aimed at the development of joint environment for management and access to culture related information.
Within the 1st project a specialized digitisation equipment for the National Archives was purchased to support capacity of digitization process and digitisation guidelines for archives were developed. Within the 2nd project the digitisation-related project activities are big scale and include complicated digitisation of number of museum exhibits. As part of the project the technical support to museums in digitisation processes was provided in the form of “mobile digitisation teams”. In the 3rd project information systems for access and presentation of newspapers, books and harvested web pages were developed, as well as digitisation infrastructure was substantially expanded, including scanning equipment, software for text and layout recognition of text materials, and servers and storage equipment. Within the 4th project the existing platform for management and preservation of digital objects was upgraded, a unified search interface and an app were developed to access both digital and physical collections of the library, a specialized web interface for access to the digitised maps, dedicated interfaces for access to the digital resources for children and for visually impaired, as well as a service for digitisation on demand, a service for collection of digitally born materials, a service for remote access to the digital materials, a service for transformation of texts in fractura typefaces and a language corpus of digitised materials were developed, as well as 365 maps digitised. As to both audio-visual projects, 10% of materials deposited in Latvian TV and Latvian Radio archives were digitised. 4200 hours of audio materials and 3818 hours of audio-visual materials were made available either through the safe virtual private network of public libraries or through the joint state portal of e-services latvija.lv. As the part of the project 18 Latvian feature and animation films were digitized and made accessible online through the portal www.filmas.lv (due to the copyright users can access films through the safe virtual private network of public libraries).
Development of the joint national archives information system; improvement of existing information system of the Joint Catalogue of National Holding of Museums; development of the digital library infrastructure and digitisation of the materials held by the National Library of Latvia; development of information systems for providing services of digital library; digitisation and online accessibility of audio-visual materials of Latvian Television and audio materials of Latvian Radio; development of joint environment for management and access of culture related information.
Project “2nd stage of the development and implementation of the Unified State Archives Information System” (total funding of the project is EUR 5’711’205 of which 85% European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding and 15% state funding; the funding spent for digitisation equipment is EUR 301’870).
Project “2nd stage of the development and implementation of the Joint Catalogue of National Holding of Museums” (total funding of the project is EUR
3’257’963 (85% ERDF funding, 15% state funding); the funding spent for digitisation of collections, training and digitisation equipment is EUR 313’772.
Project “Development of the Digital Library – 2nd stage" (total funding of the project is EUR 3’861’709 (96% - ERDF funding, 4% - state funding).
Project "Development of Digital Library services" (total funding of the project is EUR 1’422’871 (100% ERDF funding)).
Project “Ensuring the digital availability of Latvian audio-visual material” (total funding of the project is EUR 1’339’990 (100% ERDF funding); the funding for digitisation of audio and audio-visual materials and development of access portal is EUR 943’611).
Project “Unified cultural and memory institutions’ information management system” (total funding of the project is EUR 1’463’003 (100% ERDF); the funding (100% ERDF funding) spent for the digitisation of films and development of access portal is EUR 221’065).