This document discusses initiatives in Spain to digitize and provide access to bibliographic heritage collections. It describes the Virtual Library of Bibliographical Heritage which provides digital facsimiles of rare manuscripts, books, and other materials. It also discusses the Hispanic Digital Library created by the Spanish National Library which provides access to thousands of digitized historical documents. Additionally, it mentions regional digital library initiatives in Spain and digital collections of historical newspapers and periodicals.

1. DIGITAL COLLECTIONS :
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HERITAGE
IN SPAIN
PhDr. Luisa Alvite
luisa.alvite@unileon.es

2. INDEX
• Bibliograhical Heritage
• DL European Initiative
• Initiatives in Spain
• Hispana
• Digital Collections
• Virtual Library of
Bibliographical Heritage
• Hispanic Digital Library
• Historical Newspapers
• Virtual Library of Historical
Newspapers
• Digital Periodical Library

3. Digital Libraries initiative
The European Commission launched the "Digital Libraries
initiative” within the Commission's i2010 strategy for the
Information Society in 2005.
The purpose:
To make Europe’s cultural, audiovisual and scientific
heritage accessible to all.
Priority areas:
 Online accessibility.
 The digitisation of analogue collections.
 The preservation and storage of digital content.
 Scientific information.
Communication from the Commission of 30 September 2005 to the European Parliament, the Council, the
European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – i2010: digital libraries
[COM(2005) 465 final – Official Journal C 49 of 28.2.2008].

4. Digital Libraries initiative
Making the wealth of material contained in European libraries,
museums and archives available online will make it easier for
citizens to appreciate their cultural heritage and use it for
study, work or leisure.
 Reasons:
 To provide the widest possible access for the general public.
 To ensure their survival.
 Challenges:
 Financial challenges.
 Organisational challenges.
 Technical challenges.
 Legal challenges.
DIGITISATION
Preserving digital
collections!

5. Digital Collections: EU considerations
Member States are encouraged to:
 Collect information for producing overviews of digitisation.
 Develop quantitative targets for digitisation.
 Create public-private partnerships for funding purposes.
 Develop facilities for large-scale digitisation;
 Endorse the European Digital Library.
 Improve the conditions in which cultural material is digitised
and accessed online.
 Set-up national strategies and action plans.
 Establish appropriate legislative provisions for the multiple
copying and migration of digital material, as well as for the
preservation of web-content.
 Create policies and procedures for the deposit of digital
materia.
Commission Recommendation 2006/585/EC of 24 August 2006 on the digitisation and online accessibility of
cultural material and digital preservation [Official Journal L 236 of 31.8.2006].

6. Spanish bibliographical heritage
 Initiatives of the Subdirectorate General for Library
Coordination:
• To disseminate
• To preserve
 Efforts to build consensus for the project:
Cooperation of Spain’s autonomous communities
(regional governments).
Technologies procedures compliant with the action
Digital Libraries of the EU’s VII Framework Programme.
the national bibliographical heritage

7. Spanish bibliographical heritage
 Complex issues affecting technical treatment
and preservation.
 The digitisation of collections and their online
distribution using well-known digital library
standards:
DC
OAI-PMH
OAIS
Premis
SRU/SW
EDM

8. Traditional
bibliograhic
union catalog
(1988- )
First stage

9. Harvester and Directory of Spanish Digital Collections
http://hispana.mcu.es/
https://youtu.be/MbVbg6bPSMY

10. Virtual Library of Bibliographical Heritage
Digital facsimiles of the collections that make up Spanish
bibliographic heritage.
The manuscripts, incunabula and old printed books have
been selected due to:
 Their rarity.
 Their bibliographic relevance.
 Their representativiness.
 Their links with local or historic collections.
Other important collections are now being added:
 The War of Independence.
 The independence of the Latin American Republics.

11. Virtual Library of Bibliographical Heritage
 Aims:
• To help citizens to get closer
to their bibliographic heritage.
• To help humanities
researchers.
• To use technological tools
applied to bibliographic
information.
• To contribute to Europeana
project to create a database
that will include the
bibliographic heritage of all
the state members.

12. Virtual Library of Bibliographical Heritage
Technical features
 MARC21.
 The authority records can also be reviewed through access
points in English coming from the Library of Congress.
 The VLBH has a repository OAI-PMH compliant and is one of
the architectural cornerstones of Europeana.
 VLBH dynamically updates the OAI repository from the
MARC21 records, which are automatically transformed into
Dublin Core metadata schemes.
 The VLBH also has a SRU server meeting the specifications
of the Library of Congress.

13. Virtual Library of Bibliographical Heritage
Technical features
 Multipage digital object allows images of the item described
to be viewed in JPEG format.
 MARC21 format and the labelling or ISBD can be shown,
downloaded or sent by e-mail.
 The standardised access points, bibliographic description,
holding records and the digital copy are grouped according
to METS.
 VLBH takes account of needs of specialists in old printed
books -access points, the places where they were printed or
copied (in the case of manuscripts) and the names and
possible variations of their printers, booksellers and copyists-
.

14. http://bvpb.mcu.es

18. Hispanic Digital Library
 Spanish National Library
 Created in 2008.
 It provides access to thousands of digitised documents:
 Books printed from the 15th to the 19th century.
 Manuscripts.
 Drawings.
 Engravings.
 Historic newspapers and magazines.
 Pamphlets, posters, photographs, maps, atlases, music
scores, and audio recordings.
Video

19. Hispanic Digital Library
 Objectives:
 To disseminate Spanish cultural heritage while
assuring that our cultural legacy is protected and
safeguarded.
 To fullfill the commitment to the European Union to
help create the future European Digital Library.
 To become an essential tool for fostering research
into our culture by enabling scholars and hispanicists
to examine digitised holdings from anywhere in the
world.

20. http://www.bne.es/es/Catalogos/BibliotecaDigitalHispanica/Inicio

23. Regional Digital Collections
• Biblioteca Virtual de Andalucía
http://www.bibliotecavirtualdeandalucia.es/
• Biblioteca Virtual de Asturias
http://www.bibliotecavirtual.asturias.es/
• Galiciana. Biblioteca Dixital de Galicia
http://www.galiciana.bibliotecadegalicia.xunta.es/
• Memoria Digital de Catalunya
http://mdc.cbuc.cat/

24. Other relevant collections
 Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/
 Archivo Virtual de la Edad de Plata
http://www.edaddeplata.org/edaddeplata/Archivo/archivo/bu
scador.jsp/
 Biblioteca digital Dioscórides
http://biblioteca.ucm.es/atencion/24063.php
 Biblioteca digital de la Universidad de
Salamanca
http://gredos.usal.es/jspui/handle/10366/2386

25. Digital Periodical Collections
 The press is in greater
danger of disappearing.
 The access to the
original ones is restricted
only to researchers.
 Their management
requires special care
because of the fragility
presented.
 There are major
digitisation projects.

26. The Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers
http://prensahistorica.mcu.es/
 Result of a process of
cooperative digitising by
the Ministry of Culture and
the Autonomous Regions
and other memory
institutions.
 It’s possible to search for
any word on any page of
any digital newspaper.
 The solution was provided
by ALTO.

28. Digital Periodical Library
http://www.bne.es/en/Catalogos/HemerotecaDigital/
 It is part of Hispanic Digital
Library project.
 This hemeroteca was born
in March 2007.
 It provides access to the
digital collection of historic
Spanish press that houses
the National Library.
 Reference collection for
research and consultation of
both magazines and the
Spanish historical press.
 It is in continuous
development.

29. Digital Periodical Library
http://www.bne.es/en/Catalogos/HemerotecaDigital/
 A new version of the
application has been put into
in 2012.
 Standards: OAI and
Europeana.
 Improvements in the search
interface.
 The application that
manages the collection
allows you to find either a
specific title as a set of
publications issued in one
place or on a certain date.

30. Digital Periodical Collections (1)

31. luisa.alvite@unileon.es