Office and computing machinery, equipment and supplies except furniture and software packages

Description

At Nasjonalbiblioteket [the National Library] we have a goal to preserve our collections, digitise them and make them accessible in a manner that captures public interest. We will also utilise digitising services for the Norwegian archive, library and museum sector. To perform this job, we have established effective solutions for mass digitising and before the year is over we will have a scanner-operator staff of about 90 employees. As a link in our further digitising work, we need to purchase equipment and/or solutions to be able to digitise our largest paper size. We plan to purchase two to five digitising devices over a period of one year. The digitising units will be delivered to our address in Mo i Rana and can be used for comprehensive modules in our established production runs. We have experienced that no individual type of digitising equipment is best suited for all assignments. Therefore, if necessary, we will procure different types of equipment in order to build up an equipment park where we at all times can select the best suited digitising method. The digitising devices can be scanner or camera-based solutions that in an appropriate manner can be used to digitise everything from individual sheets, for example such as images, maps and placards, to bound materials such as protocols, books and newspapers. The format and paper quality of the originals can vary greatly and often there is a relation between the largest formats and poor paper quality, often in the form of cellulose paper that was used from the end of the 1800's. These are paper originals that are challenging to handle in a responsible manner and that we cannot digitise with more automated digitising equipment. The National Library's newspaper collection consists of about 75 million newspaper pages and we currently have digitised about half of these. The parts of the newspaper collection that are relevant for digitising with the newly purchased digitising equipment are the years from approx. 1880-1920, where many of these are bound. We anticipate implementing this digitising during the next 10 years. The National Library's map collection consists of about 100 000 maps and about 2 300 atlas/map books. The map books can contain everything from a few maps to up to 500 maps each. The maps vary greatly in size, but most are sized about 70 x 50 cm. The map collection contains materials from the end of the 1400s and up until today, and the condition of the paper originals varies greatly. We anticipate carrying out all map digitising during the next 20 years.