KrakowInformer.com

New building of the Jagiellonian library allowed readers to use it more comfortably

Digitalizing old manuscrpts is a necessity

Flipping old pages will be gone soon

The old building is dated to 1920's

- The most valuable, most searched and most ruined collections of the Jagiellonian Library and the Jagiellonian University will be digitalized and made available as part of a project “Jagiellonian Digital Library” (JBC) – said Katarzyna Pilitowska, Jagiellonian University spokeswoman.
At the beginning of January, the minister of culture and national heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski assigned for this project 5.13 million złoty from the European Regional Development Fund. The project realized by the Jagiellonian Library will last for three years, until 2012. The recruitment process for people who will create the digital library will start shortly.

Katarzyna Szklanny from the Jagiellonian Library told Polish Press Agency (PAP), that this will be a team of a dozen or more people, who will need to meet specific demands – this mainly concerns librarians, who can not only work in digital stores, but also create them. In the JBC digital reproductions of the collections will be progressively put up. An unlimited number of readers will be able to use them on-line. Thanks to this, the original works will be excluded from use. - By the end of the year, the first books will be made available on a digital platform – says Szklanny.

The digitalization doesn’t only limit itself to a 3-year project. It is only the first phase of a much larger enterprise. On this stage, up till 2012, precious objects and very damaged newspapers from the 19th and early 20th century that due to acid paper face disintegrate will be digitalized. As for the special collections of the “Jagiellonka”, they have already been scanned, and now they have to be processed so they meet the new, demanded standards.

- By the end of 2012 we will have digitalized periodics such as: Dziennik Polski, Gazeta Lwowska, Gazeta Narodow, Głos Narodu, Nowa Reforma, Nowości Ilustrowane, Słowo Polskie, Sprawozdania Stenograficzne Sejmu Galicyjskiego and 215 titles of the only copies in Poland of magazines – said the “Jagiellonka” representative.