Digitisation

Numbers

The Austrian National Library plans to digitise within the next five years:

• newspapers: 3.5 million pages
• books: 2 million pages
• pictures: 300,000 pages
• papyri: 10,000 pieces
• audio material: 4,000 hours

Strategy

The Austrian National Library foresees in its strategic planning digitising a selection of  its valuable holdings of printed material as well as other precious resources such as manuscripts, photographs, incunabula, and papyri.
 
The highest priority is for publications

• that were published or created in Austria;
• whose content is concerned mostly with Austria, the Austrian people, or Austrian cultural, political, social or economic situations in the past or in the present;
• that are part of the main historical collections in the Library;
• which are in great demand from clients, e.g., newspapers or legal texts, etc.;
• whose contents are in particular danger because of degeneration of the information vehicle, e.g., sound recordings, etc.

The program of digitisation of the Austrian National Library is based at the moment on two pillars:

1. Large-scale digitisation
2. Digitisation of special holdings

A third focal point will be the development in the area of digitisation “on demand”. In accord with the wishes of clients, analogous reproduction services, such as reproductions on microfilm, will be replaced in 2008 by digital reproductions. New modern special scanners for sensitive and precious materials are being acquired, so that we can digitise those precious objects on our premises.
In the middle term the Austrian National Library plans to expand its capacity to carry out digitisation by the establishment of a new digitisation centre in association with the construction of a new underground storeroom.