Grants talk:Project/Rapid/UG BG/Archives Digitisation/Report/Interim

Hello Спасимир!

In order for Nikola to go ahead with closing the bank account, we need to somehow put an end to this grant. Since the goals for this project were forecasted for the end of the year, maybe we can do a "mid-term" or rather a "start report". For this I would be grateful if you could add the following information to the report:

1. Number of files digitized to date (maybe add one or tow pics)
2. explanation of how the scanner is being used: by whom, when, etc.
3. next steps in terms of what will be digitized in the frame of that report
4. mini report about how the first digitizations have gone (a bit about the technical process, a bit about how the cooperation with the archives have been going)
5. Maybe write more about the learnings by talking about the partnership and how the purchase of this/these scanners has changed it / made it better or worse :)
6. Confirm whether you received two or one scanner (the request is not super clear in that regard) or what still needs to be received.

That's all I can think of now. Thanks! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 07:42, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Hello Delphine (WMF)!

Thank you for your interest in the progress of documents digitization in the Bulgarian Archives State Agency.

1. Up to now, the portable scanner has been used for digitizing 140 images, and the one for negatives and microfilms has been used for 115 images, as can be tracked from the Commons category: [1]

2. The utilization of the scanner for negatives and microfilms started in February, and the portable one - in March. The reason is that in January BASA's is performing its regular annual inventorization and the reading room is closed. Due to problems with the supplier of the portable scanner, it came later and its usage started in March. So far, both scanners have been only used by me (my contributions uploaded via my custom account User:BASA Спасимир). The scanners are used 1-2 times weekly, and my last visit in the Archive was on March 21, 2017.

3. The digitization work is ongoing. Currently, a new order was made for new documents to be retrieved from the repositories. A list of inventories and archive units, pending digitization, was prepared, which includes more than 70 large albums with photographs from the personal archive of the Bulgarian kings Ferdinand and Boris III. They comprise photographies of highest quality, related to the culture and economics of Bulgaria, Eastern, Central and Western Europe. Also, I have researched and discovered many other archive materials that contain valuable historical documents from the first half of 20th century.

4. The images, digitized with the two purchased scanners, are already in use in articles in several languages. The procedure of digitization is the following: First, a research is made in the digital metadata repository of the Archive, and the order for their delivery from their respective physical repository (BASA has three document repositories in different parts of Sofia). We usually obtain them within 1-2 days, and they are delivered to the reading room. The particular use of scanner and/or digitization settings depends on the physical dimensions and specifics of the document - medium, qualities of the paper, single- or multipage document, etc. Then, the unnecessary parts of the scan have to be cropped, like external frames, passepartouts, table (for the portable scanner), etc., so that only the scanned document remains. For some documents, both sides of the documents have to be scanned (as the backside often contains handwritten descriptions, metadata, etc. Then, it follows the file description and upload to Commons. From the total number of more than 8000 archive documents, images are used in 2550 articles in 74 different language versions of Wikipedia and its sister projects. [2]

5. The scanner for negatives and microfilms allowed us to digitize content, which we had never before been able to digitize. The portable scanner allows the digitization of images, which before this was rather difficult or even impossible to scan, with high resolution, and especially ones contained in multipage photo albums, thus helping us to scan without the need to unstitch or deform them.

6. Both ordered scanners were delivered - one portable scanner and one scanner for negatives and microfilms, and they are already put in good use.--Spasimir (talk) 20:26, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Hello Spasimir, this is great. Would you be so kind as to add this information IN the report page and then we can proceed with closing the account etc. That would be extremely useful. Thanks! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 07:53, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Hello Delphine, following your suggestion, I proceeded with the integration of Spasimir's answers into the interim report, and respectively changed the section about the remainder. Please let us know when the next interim report should be made (we suggest 1 August). →Spiritia 15:23, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Report on 1 August 2017 sounds great. Thank you! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 06:44, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

@Spiritia and Спасимир: Hi Spiritia and Спасимир, I'm checking in to ask about the status of the final report for the project, as it was due earlier this month. If you're unsure of where to place it on-wiki, I'd recommend that this report be written at Grants:Project/Rapid/UG BG/Archives Digitisation/Report. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 16:14, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

Hello, Chris, yeah, I am sorry for the delay, we will complete the report by the end of the week. Thank you for the reminder and patience :))) →Spiritia 07:14, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

Report 2017-04-01 - 2017-08-31

Hello, I JethroBT (WMF)! Thank you for your interest in the progress of documents digitization in the Bulgarian Archives State Agency and sorry for the delay.

1. Number of files digitized to date (maybe add one or tow pics)

More than 400 pictures and 22 negatives from the Central State Archive in Sofia and the State Archive-Varna have been digitized over the past 5 months. Digitized valuable documents from the history of the Balkans, as well as images of cultural and social life in Bulgaria at the beginning of the 20th century.

2. explanation of how the scanner is used: by who, when, etc.

The scanners were used for digitizing photos and documents in the Central State Archives by User: BASA Spasimir and in State Archive-Varna by User: BASA ShockD. Most actively used in June and July.

3. Next steps in terms of what will be digitized in that report

By the end of the year, we've planned digitization to continue, as well as continue uploading images in Commons because there are still a few dozens of digitized images to be uploaded.--Spasimir (talk) 15:36, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

In addition, we are working on a case study in Outreach wiki about the Archives Challenge, that will help us transfer our experience and lessons learnt from the better, community driven utilization of the digitized archive resources. It is still in a ver raw draft, but will be done by the end of this project. →Spiritia 21:32, 31 August 2017 (UTC)