PSNC Digital Libraries Team

28th February, 2010 was the deadline for submission of reports on the application of The Commission Recommendation on Digitisation and Online Accessibility of Cultural Material and Digital Preservation. Poland, as a Member State of the European Union, was also obliged to submit such report on the current implementation stage. You can download it here.

According to the document, it is estimated, that at the beginning of 2010 there is in Poland:

• ca. 500 000 digital object in the libraries (80% available via the Internet),
• ca. 1 000 000 digital object in the archives (20% available via the Internet),
• ca. 500 000 digital object in the museums (1-2% available via the Internet).

Of which around 350 000 (17.5%), mainly located in the libraries, is visible in the European digital library, archive and museum – Europeana. In order to increase digital objects number and then to make them visible in the Internet, four Competence Centres were set up:

• for libraries – the National Library,
• for monuments and museums – the National Heritage Board of Poland,
• for audiovisual materials – the National Audiovisual Institute,
• for archives – the National Digital Archive.

There is more interesting information in the report. The National Library estimates now, that there is around 1 600 000 books in the public domain in Poland. It is a great resource, which can be freely digitized and make available in the Internet. Thats way in the document there is an assumption that by 2013 there will be 1 000 000 digitized objects in the global network from libraries in Poland. Furthermore by 2020 there will be 15 000 000 of Polish digital objects, which will be stored in the digital repositories of different types:

• digital libraries,
• digital archives,
• virtual museums,
• audiovisual collections.

The Committee for Digitisation at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the four aforementioned Competence Centres are responsible for work on reaching that number (you can find more here on the programe).

Moreover the report contains a short description and contact addresses of 5 selected data providers for the Europeana. We are pleased to note, that 4 out of 5 presented, are visible in the Europeana via the PIONIER network Digital Libraries Federation:

• Digital Library of Wielkopolska,
• Kujawsko-Pomorska Digital Library,
• Małopolska Digital Library,
• Silesian Digital Library.

If you are looking for more news about:

• projected costs of digitisation in the next few years,
• state of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP),
• government programs in Poland tackling the issue of digitisation,
• long-term preservation

I encourage you to read the whole report and the document mentioned in the report – “Program for digitisation of cultural goods and collection, storage and availability of digital items in Poland in 2009-2020“.