Itinera NovaThe road travelled so far

Itinera Nova: Phase 1

• March 2009 – December 2012• Cultural heritage project• Aimed at development• Financed by

– Flemish Government– City of Leuven– Cera

• Evaluation– Steering committee– Professional users group– Financers

Itinera Nova

New ways to the disclosure of archival sources

• Archival sources• Hand-written sources• Digital disclosure • Innovation

Registers of the scabinal court

• Voluntary jurisdiction in Leuven• Handwritten• Voluminous:

– 1,128 registers– Ca. 950,000 pages

Registers of the scabinal court

• Long period: 1362-1795• ‘Officialese’• Study object for many disciplines

Digital disclosure

• What?– Bulkdigitization– Digital disclosure of content

• Profound• Superficial

• Who?– Volunteers

• Trained• Online• Monitored

Bulkdigitization

• Best practice bulkdigitization• Online Manual: www.faronet.be:

POPPE, J., Handboek digitaliseren van documenten. Addendum: ‘Het Itinera Nova-project als praktijkvoorbeeld’

Bulkdigitization

• How?– Professional bookscanner

• Who?– Professional firm– City archives

• When?– 10 years

• Goals?• Public?

Bulkdigitization

• Steps– Preparing the registers

Bulkdigitization

• Steps– Preparing the registers– Scanning: TIFF

Bulkdigitization

• Steps– Preparing the registers– Scanning: TIFF– Control– Conversion to JPEG and Tiled TIFF– Archiving– Images online

Bulkdigitization: outsourcing

• Extensive assignment description• Demoscans = standard• Working visit• Profound judgement price-quality• Realistic work-flow• Transport• Testscans

– Enough– Representative– Discuss

• Profound control

Bulkdigitization: insourcing

• Defining quality level• Professional equipment and atmosphere:

– Scanner – Lighting– Darkened room

• Scan operators– Involved– Accurate– Trained– Volunteers

• Profound control– Sharpness– Completeness (image + register)– Colours– Naming

Digital disclosure of content

• Development by HKI University Cologne:– Database

• Images• Created acts• Full transcriptions• Annotations

– Website– ‘Indexing’ tool– Transcription tool– Annotation tool

• Focus on period 1362-1460

Digital disclosure of content

• Website: www.itineranova.be

Website: Browse

Website: Browse

Website: Search

Digital disclosure of content

• ‘Indexing’ tool– Create act– Provide act with metadata

• Name of act: e.g. R°25.3– R° or V°– Folio number– Number of act on page

• Assign image(s) to act• Language• Aldermen• Type of act• Date• Possibility to insert transcription from MSWord

‘Indexing’ tool

‘Indexing’ tool

Digital disclosure of content

• Transcription tool– Profound disclosure– Dutch acts– Indexed acts– Split screen– Online input

• Log-in• Time- & place independent

– Easy to use• For volunteers• For correctors

Transcription tool

Transcription tool

Transcription tool

User’sSpace

Corrector’sSpace

PublicSpace

Transcription

Correction

OK for publ. Publication

Digital disclosure of content

• Annotation tool– Superficial disclosure– Latin acts– Images– Index categories

• Person name• Profession• Person: function• Street name• Building: name• Building: function / Institution• Nickname• Place name• Micro toponym

Annotation tool

Annotation tool

Annotation tool

Volunteers: tasks

• Transcribing Time- & place independent

• Annotating Digital volunteers

• Preparing registers• Scanning In the city archives

• Image editing

Volunteers: training

• Paleography courses• Personal coaching• Training by external specialists• Online tutorial

– Introduction paleography 15th C.– How to work with the website and the transcription tool– Link on www.itineranova.be

Online tutorial

Newsletter

• Register on www.itineranova.be– Latest news– Announcement activities– Focus on an expression– Focus on an act

Results

• Development/publication of:– Manual bulk digitization– Transcription tool– Annotation tool– Tutorial

• Preliminary outcomes:– 40% of the registers digitized

• 304 online• 128 waiting

– 10,500 transcriptions online– Online and offline community of 30-35 volunteers

Itinera Nova

“20 years ago it started off with a dream of mine to do something with my registers. Today it has become so much more than that.”

Thank you to everyone who believes in our project.

Thank you especially to our community of volunteers.