VD 18: Digitising, indexing and online presentation of 18th century prints of the Thuringian University and State Library Jena as part of VD 18

• Applicant: Dr. Sabine Wefers
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 289112027

Based on a ducal collection from the sixteenth century today's Thuringian University and State Library Jena (ThULB) grew during the seventeenth and eigteenth century into one of the largest German university libraries. The library obtained its remarkable profile as a scientific collection through regular purchases as well as legal deposit copies. Further growth occured due to exchange activities and particularly through the acquisition of collections of prior posession. As a result of more than 500 years of collection history the ThULB Jena nowadays holds more than 650.000 old prints, whereof about 75.000 titles are categorized as 18th century books printed in German-speaking countries (VD 18). The ThULB Jena wishes to contribute its rich stock of historical prints as well as its comprehensive know-how concerning the digitisation and indexing of the cultural heritage as part of the project VD 18. The project "Digitisation and Indexing of 18th Century Books Printed in German-Speaking Countries (VD 18)" aims at creating a retrospective German national bibliography of the 18th century. The project indexes German books printed between 1701 and 1800 and the prints will furthermore be digitised and made available on the internet. The aim of the here applied for project - as part of the VD 18 project - is to digitise and catalogue 18th century books printed in German-speaking countries pertaining to the collection of the ThULB Jena as well as to make them freely available via the internet. In this context the ThULB Jena aims to catalogue about 7.000 books and produce circa 910.000 digital copies. The online presentation will be realised via the Universal Multimedia Electronic Library (UrMEL) and detailed metadata will be made available in the Union Catalogue (GBV) as well as in additional information systems and portals.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)