Freitag, 8. März 2019

Digitising Slovakia's literary heritage for posterity

Books are an essential element of any country's culture. To ensure this knowledge is preserved, Slovakia has launched a huge programme to digitise its national literary heritage. Smart Regions met the experts behind the project.
Books are fragile: time, humidity and simple wear and tear all take their toll. At the Slovak National Library located in the town of Martin a mass digitisation project called Dikda is underway to protect books and other documents from such threats.
For the general public it's also a new way of experiencing their national culture.
"The next generation can come here and see how life and our culture were like fifty or hundred years ago," says teacher Marian Baleja.
By the end of 2018, the project had digitised more than 2,800,000 objects at a total cost of some €40.2 million. Around €27.7 of that came from the European Union's Cohesion Policy.