This presentation gives a short overview on the challenges that ICARUS met with during its over 10 years of experience with digitization of historical material. It shows the tools and objects of its projects. The talk was held at EVA 2014 in Firenze by Daniel Jeller on 09th May 2014.

1. Image digitization
in ICARUS

2. Overview
What is ICARUS?
What do we digitize?
What tools do we use?
What challenges do we
face?

3. What is ICARUS?

4. ICARUS …
… is a community of over 130 institutions in 26 European
countries
… is a way for cultural heritage institutions to face the
challenges of the Digital Age together
… helps with designing and implementing cross-border
projects
… provides its members with know how and tools to
digitize their documents
… operates several platforms that make digitized
historical material available online
… Membership and participation is free

5. Digitization in ICARUS

6. Monasterium
www.monasterium.net
It is an online database for medieval and
early modern charters
It started in the year 2002 as a regional
project and grew since then
It combines digital images with metadata
It makes 550.000 documents with
700.000 images from 130 archives
accessible over the internet
It uses current web-technologies to
create a collaborative editing / research
environment

7. Focus: charters
 Medieval and early
modern documents
 Legal documents that
record transactions /
grants of rights
 An main source for
historical research
 Difficult to use due to
their nature
 One of the earliest
objects for digitization

8. Main characteristics
Objects of various sizes and physical conditions
Single sheet documents
Only accessible in situ
Fragile and very valuable objects
Local digitization necessary
Very limited funds
Acceptable compromise between speed and quality

9. Matricula
matricula-online.eu
Parish
registers
from Austria,
Germany and
Poland
Over 4
Million
digitized
pages
Started in
2009
Digitization
outsourced

10. Parish registers
 Record births, marriages
and deaths in a parish
 Start to appear in the
16th century
 Still in use today
 Often still in possession
of the origin parish
 Very important for
historic and genealogic
research

11. Main characteristics
Rather uniform size and physical appearance
Varying physical condition
Books
Most of the time no special conservation demands
Can be transported

12. Manuscripts
various small projects / contributions

13. Main characteristics
High restrictions for digitization
Books of various sizes but still similar
Tightly bound, so limited opening angle
No transport possible
Most of the time small projects

14. Equipment

15. Book scanner
+ Pro: Easy to use, fixed resolution (400DPI), high speed
- Con: Fixed lighting, limited size and flexibility

16. Limit: size

17. Limit: inflexible lighting
Uneven surfaces can cause problems

18. Glass plate as a tool

19. DSLR with lighting and tripod
+ Pro: Flexible use, cheap price, highly transportable
- Con: Resolution depending on size, know-how required

20. Limit: relative resolution
9 MP (20 x 20 mm) 23 MP (20 x 20 mm)

21. So: no one size fits all
Even a cheap camera might already give acceptable results

22. Book stand for DSLR
+ Pro: Combines advantages of scanner and camera
- Con: Combines disadvantages of scanner and camera

23. Semi automatic scanner
+ Pro: High speed, good quality
- Con: Only usable for specific objects, quality management

24. Limit: outsourcing / quality
control

25. Challenges to overcome

26. Challenge: dimensions
Sizes mostly between DIN A7 (70 x 105 mm) and A1 (594 × 841 mm)

27. Challenge: layout
Text on top and under the plica

28. Challenge: Thickness /
binding
Difficult to open, some parts not visible

29. Challenge: state of
preservation
Material damage Acidic colors

30. Challenge: Contrast
The color matters

31. Conclusion: plan ahead
before you digitize

32. Any questions?
daniel.jeller@icar-us.eu
www.icar-us.eu