GOOD PRACTICE IN DIGITISATION
FORM FOR NOMINATION

This is the form for the nomination of a good practice in digitisation.
Please, send a form for each different project.
Each project can be “nominated” for more than one area.

Send the form/forms to the attention of Maria Teresa Natale by e-mail to minerva2@beniculturali.it orf by fax to +390667232499.

The form will be submitted to the National representative for approval.

English must be used.

NAME AND ACRONYM OF THE PROJECT:

Digitisation and web-publication of architectural drawings within the Project Lineamenta – a database for the study of architectural drawings 

URL: http://lineamenta.biblhertz.it:8080/Lineamenta/

Link to a short description of the project:
http://wissensgeschichte.biblhertz.it:8080/WdA/WdA/WdA_coll/publications/images/lineamenta.pdf

AREAS for nominations of 'good practice' for on-going projects on digitisation:

1)  Digitisation Project Planning (The Reasons for the project, Human Resources, Research, Risks

2)  Selecting Source Material for Digitisation (Establish Selection Criteria, Selection Against the Criteria)

3) X Preparation for Digitisation (Hardware; Software; Environment)

4) X Handling of Originals (Moving and Manipulating Original Material)

5) X The Digitisation Process (Using Scanners; Using Digital Cameras; Software Applications for Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

6) X Preservation of Digital Master Material (File Formats; Media Choices; Migration Strategies)

7)  Meta-Data (The Scope of Meta-Data Used for Object Description; Appropriate Meta-Data Standards)

8) X Publication (Image Processing; 3D and Virtual Reality Issues; Online Publication)

9)  IPR and Copyright (Establing Copyright; Safeguarding Copyright)

10)  Managing Digitisation projects (Digitisation Process management; Team Development; Staff Training; Working with Third Parties for Technical Assistance; Working with Third Parties in Cooperative projects and Content Sharing; Costs

RESPONSIBLE BODY AND/OR ANY SPECIFIC 
CO-ORDINATING BODY/MECHANISM/INSTITUTION

Name of the institution: Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rom

English name of the institution: Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome

Acronym of the institution: 

Mailing address : Via Gregoriana 28, I-00187 Rome, Italy

Country: Germany/Italy (German Institution located in Italy)

Tel.: +39-06-69993-227

Fax: +39-06-69993-333

E-mail: penna@biblhertz.it

URL: http://www.biblhertz.it

Type of institution:  National		 Governmental		 Regional
            x Other   Specify: Research Organisation with national and regional funding

Sector:  Archive   Library  Museum  Foundation  
            X Other   Specify: Research Institute 

Legal status: x Public   Private    No profit

Description of the institution (max 200 characters):

Research Institute for Art History with focus on Italy (middle ages to 20th century). Main Research Projects focusing painting in 16th and 17th century and early modern Italian architecture.

CONTACT PERSON OF THE PROJECT

Name: Schlimme Surname:  Hermann

Gender:   X M	 F

Title: Dr.-Ing., Resident Scholar

Institution: Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History

Mailing address: Via Gregoriana 28, I-00187 Rome, Italy

Country: Germany/Italy (German Institution located in Italy)

Tel.: +39-06-69993-310

Fax: +39-06-69993-333

e-mail: schlimme@biblhertz.it

Contact languages: German, Italian, English

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

Duration: since 2003
(execution time of digitalisation process: continuous)

Objectives and priorities  (max 200 characters):

The database for the study of architectural drawings Lineamenta documents and scholarly comments architectural drawings (sketches, technical and presentation drawings etc.) and makes the information accessible to the scientific community via web. The database has the goal of virtually bringing together drawings at present scattered in collections throughout the world. Cooperation with collections is therefore extremely important. Lineamenta is based on ZOPE (Z Object Publishing environment), an open source configurable database-system, which the project members adapted to the complex necessities of the project.The digitization equipment is cutting edge (251 MP, 300 dpi up to originals of 147 x 121 cm) and offers such an image quality as to render the entire density of information of the original, down to the structure of the paper. The equipment is mobile and gives the opportunity to scan on site in the collections. The scans are available on the web in full resolution and can be studied on the screen with specifically designed tools (Graphic Server Digilib). 

The main features for what you consider the project a 'good practice' example, with respect to the selected areas (max 200 characters for each area):

1)	Digitisation Project Planning (The Reasons for the project:  Research, see objectives and priorities

2)	Selecting Source Material for Digitisation (Establish Selection Criteria, Selection Against the Criteria)
The Bibliotheca Hertziana itself has no drawing collection. The selection of the material to be digitised and published is made due to the research focuses and concerns primarily the Accademia di San Luca. The European aristocracy collected Italian drawings and sent their architects to study at the Roman Academy in 17th and 18th century. Therefore drawing collections in other European countries, like the Graphische Sammlung, Kunstbibliothek Berlin or the Graphische Sammlung, Museumslandschaft Hessen-Kassel, are of key interest for the database. We have cooperation with these and other collections on scientific and technical level.

3) Preparation for Digitisation (Hardware; Software; Environment)

We possess a fully operative System for Mobile Large Scale and High Resolution Digitization. The equipment is mobile and gives the opportunity to scan on site in the collections.

Description of the Hardware
The scanback works with a standard large format camera. The system is completed by special lighting, vertical wall-like drawing-holders and is used in studio and for away shooting.
Scanback: Anagramm David Linescanner (Scanback)
14400-dot 3-colour CCD-Line-Sensor (Trilinear line), 1-pass-scan
Resolution 14.400 x 17.400 Pixel (251 Megapixel, not interpolated)
300 dpi resolution up to originals of the size 147 x 121 cm 
600 dpi resolution up to originals of the size 73 x 60 cm
max. filesize using 24-bit-colours: 734 MB (48-bit-colours: 1.468 MB)
Time per full scan: 5 to max. 9 minutes
Camera: Standard Large Format Camera Linhof Master Technika 2000
Lens: Rodenstock Apo-Sironar-digital 5,6/90mm with Daylight Filter 
Lighting: 4 x Grigull permanent lighting with each 6 x 55 W fluorescent lamps
frequence: 40 KHz
light temperature: 5.200 °K (daylight)
extremely low uva-emission
light quality: RA 98
The System is oriented horizontally in order to have no size limit for the originals. In studio a glassless wall-like vacuum holder is used for the original drawings. The vacuum-wall measures 1,30 x 1,80 m. For away shooting a glassless electrostatic drawing-holder is used (1,30 x 0,90 m).
The camera has to be positioned perfectly horizontal and in a way that the scanline runs strictly parallel to the drawing on the wall. This is guaranteed with a mirror system. One mirror is placed on the drawing holder. The other one has a hole in the middle and is inserted in the lens slot of the camera. The camera is in the right position when the observer sees a reflection ad infinitum when looking through the hole. 

Description of the Software
The calibration of colour, lighting etc. is based on standard professional software (in this case profilemaker). For Standard Large Format Cameras the focus has to be found manually. The Anagramm software offers a life image, that appears simultaneously on the screen during the focusing process.
The software of the scanline offers some special features, e.g. the possibility to compensate light non uniformity. This is prepared in a two step process. First the whole scan area on the drawing-holder is covered with a white paper. The white paper is now scanned and the result is a perfect image of the light-non-uniformity. The white-paper-reference-scan is now subtracted from every drawing-scan. This feature is important especially for away shooting, where perfect light conditions are difficult to be obtained.
Images are saved immediately in tif-format. There is no loss of quality due to intermediate proprietary formats. Of course it is possible to automatically enter the effective dpi-value into the standard tif-metadata. Due to the mentioned software features the scans need almost no further finishing treatment and can be directly inserted into the databases.

4) Handling of Originals (Moving and Manipulating Original Material)
Important is to use a glass-less holder and lighting with low-uva emission in order to preserve the originals during scan process (see under 3)).

5) The Digitisation Process (Using Scanners; Using Digital Cameras; Software Applications for Optical Character recognition (OCR)

See under 3) for Environment, Hard- and Software.

The steps in the digitisation process are: The drawings are scanned (recto and verso) and need very few further finishing treatment. Automatic production of preview and thumbnail images. Digitizing the watermarks (one-shot-camera, Nikon DCS 14n). Drawing information inserted into the Lineamenta database. The scans are then linked to the database in a semi-automatic way.

When scanning on site in the collections, the drawing information can be inserted via web directly into the Lineamenta main database, or it is inserted into a local version of the database and later on imported into the main database.

6) Preservation of Digital Master Material (File Formats; Media Choices; Migration Strategies)

Preservation of unsharpened master-tif and corrected tif (both tiffs without compression) on the archive-server of the Max Planck Society in Garching (Germany), which corresponds to the latest standards for archive servers.

7) Meta-Data (The Scope of Meta-Data Used for Object Description; Appropriate Meta-Data Standards)

The metadata with the scholarly descriptions of the drawings are exportable in xml and other standards.

8) Publication (Image Processing; 3D and Virtual Reality Issues; Online Publication)
Producing high resolution images is just one side of the medal. The other is making them available via the web in few seconds and best resolution. For that purpose, the database Lineamenta uses the specific graphic server Digilib, which allows – for the collections which give this permission – online access to high resolution scans of the drawings, so that drawings can actually be studied and analyzed on the computer screen. Digilib does not send the whole image (750 MB), but just screen contents. Thus the web user has the possibility to have a larger part of the drawing or the whole drawing in a lower resolution or a smaller part of the drawing in higher resolution. Digilib offers a lot of possibilities to study and analyze drawings on the screen. It is possible to make measurements utilizing historic units of measure (ARCHIMEDES), to use a contrast-luminosity-lens, to comment on the drawings or their details and to save results of study directly into the database. Drawings or parts of them can be studied in original dimensions (original size). This and other similar tools allow the correct evaluation of the drawing’s level of precision and quality of execution on the computer screen. The Graphic Server Digilib is developed by the University of Bern in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the Bibliotheca Hertziana. 

An example for a 3d and Virtual Reality Issue is the contribution of the Bibliotheca Hertziana to the EU-Project 3D-Bridge. The result is on the following site:
http://www.biblhertz.it/deutsch/forschung/3d-bridge.htm

9) IPR and Copyright (Establishing Copyright; Safeguarding Copyright)
The idea of Lineamenta is to make drawings freely available on the web in high resolution. However, within the database it is possible to restrict access for single collections and even single drawings through a password.

10) Managing Digitisation projects (Digitisation Process management; Team Development; Staff Training; Working) 

Standardised workflows for digitisation and database entries. 

Problems encountered and lessons learned:

In the whole, the project doesn’t encounter large difficulties.  

Comments:

The use of open source software is recommended, especially in order to enable cooperation. Our database was from the beginning on completely managed through the web. It is preferable not to create a local database and later on publish it on the web but to start it right on the web.

I agree this information may be published on Minerva Knowledge Base: http://www.minervaeurope.org

X Yes  No

Signature: _____________________

Name: Hermann Schlimme

e-mail: schlimme@biblhertz.it