About the project
LIBRARIA - project of Archival Information Systems (AIS), carried out in cooperation with libraries, archives and research institutions in Ukraine and abroad. The purpose of the project - to digitize and provide online access to a broad array of Ukrainian historical periodicals.
We started this project in 2012, when the first collection of Ukrainian newspapers was scanned. Now more than 700 000 pages of more than 400 publications in Ukrainian, Polish, German, Romanian, Yiddish, Crimean Tatar and Russian, published in different regions of Ukraine and abroad from the beginning of 1950s are digitized. The resource is constantly updated with new publications. We continue to work and plan to introduce millions of pages in the next few years, significantly expanding the geographic and chronological scope of the project.
Not only digital images, but also recognized texts of issues with interactive content of each of the numbers are available for viewing on the website, which gives users extensive search capabilities.
In addition to full-text morphological search, search by publication names, geography (regions and places) and timeline of publications (specific dates or periods) is also available; Searching for article headings and captioning illustrations can be applied separately.
Considering an amount of content and its diversity, we have divided the publications presented on the site into thematic collections. Being aware of the subjectivity of this approach, we still consider it expedient and hope that it will add convenience and help users of the resource to better navigate the presented array.
We use high-performance archival and library-specific scanning equipment that does not damage the originals - planetary scanners Zeutschel OS 12000 and OS 14000 (A2 and A1), and allows us to scan tens of thousands of pages every month. With advanced page-level segmentation technology and our own online content presentation platform, we are able to provide multiple search tools to our users.
Scanned newspapers are handled using special software (docWorks) that converts digital images to intelligent packages, using OCR (text recognition) and zoning (identifying headings, text and ad units, images, etc. for each page) containing structural and descriptive metadata in international METS/ALTO and MODS formats for each of the numbers that are imported into the presentation system and provide diverse, including full-text, search tools.
We work with many institutions in Ukraine and abroad that provide us with scanning materials, including university and archival libraries, museums, the Book Chamber of Ukraine. We are constantly looking for new partners and encourage participation of libraries that store attractive and complete collections of Ukrainian historical periodicals.
Our technical capabilities far exceed the real rate of digitization, since access to originals remains a major problem. The partnership in the project not only enables digitization and access to rare newspaper funds, but also protects them from being lost, primarily by limiting the circulation of originals. We also carry out restoration work and provide further long-term storage of collections in special, produced according to international standards, archive boxes, because the low quality, newsprint of the XIX - the first half of the XX century., Prone to rapid destruction.
Partner institutions, have full access not only to their own digitized collections, but to the resource as a whole.
For several years, while working on digitizing of the original periodic array, developing a content presentation platform, etc., we have not restricted access to the resource. But given that the project is a private initiative and requires considerable resources to scan, process and present online collections, we see no other way of development than a commercial one.
Full content access, including viewing of images and recognized text of specific numbers is paid and is provided only for libraries (list). Access is granted to static IP addresses within the reading rooms or other premises of the libraries, after the agreement has been signed. Contact us. However, all search engines, including full-text search results, remain open. Full paid access to the resource for individuals is not currently provided.
Funds raised from the implementation of access are reinvested in the development of the project - we plan to submit several million newspaper pages in the near future, significantly expanding the geographical and chronological boundaries of the resource. We are also constantly working to improve our presentation system, most notably search tools. Announcements of new arrivals appear regularly on the site.
Libraries and institutions that have provided us with their collections for digitization can receive full free trial access to the resource. Please contact us.
Demo content can be viewed here.
The exclusive proprietary rights to the digitized and presented on LIBRARIA content, the online content presentation platform and the LIBRARIA™ trademark are the property of the Archival Information Systems Company and are registered in accordance with Ukrainian copyright and related law.
We carefully approach the selection of publications for digitization and presentation at LIBRARIA and operate solely within the limits of Ukrainian and international copyright and related rights. However, if you believe that your rights have been infringed, in particular by posting copyrighted materials, please contact us - we will take all possible steps to clarify the circumstances and restore the infringed rights.
Archival Information Systems (AIS) is a Ukrainian company that since 2005 has been working on digitizing archival and library collections and implementing information technology in these areas.