Supervisor: Prof. Zdzisław Pietrzyk

Completion period: 04.2010 - 04.2013

Project value: 6,042,547.81 PLN

The Jagiellonian Digital Library project, implemented in 2010-2013, was a natural continuation of the activities undertaken previously by the Jagiellonian Library. Already in the mid-1990s, the Jagiellonian Library considered protecting historic documents by digitizing them. In 1995, with the participation of a commercial company, the work of Nicolaus Copernicus, "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium", was scanned and recorded on CDs. Even then, there was a lively discussion of methods and criteria for the protection of historic book collections.

It was the priority of the project to save documents from irretrievable destruction. Digitization consisted in creation of virtual copies that could be used instead of the originals in poor condition.

The most evident effect of the project is the Jagiellonian Digital Library, a virtual reading room that can be accessed at www.jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl

The publications included in the project, after being converted to a digital form, underwent conservation by a project-funded team of preservation specialists. For the purpose of promotion of the project, an information kiosk was set up, enabling every patron entering the library to learn comprehensive details of the project and browse the available publications on a 40-inch touch screen.

More information about the project and the collections covered by the project is available here: the Jagiellonian Digital Library