ECPRD seminar in Brussels131 May 2002 THE DIGIDOC-PROJECT DIGITISATION OF PARLIAMENTARY DOCUMENTS IN THE BELGIAN PARLIAMENT PAUL SARENS

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens231 May 2002 P.O.D. - DIGIDOC-PROJECT P.O.D. : Printing on demand rationalisation of printing and distribution of parliamentary publications selective distribution of documents “digitally born” documents from 1995 Digidoc : digitisation of documents creation of a “digital library” historical documents ( ) logical complement to the P.O.D.-project

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens331 May 2002 DIGITAL CHOICES TO MAKE Publications with greatest legal and historic importance : Documents and Records of the House of Representatives and the Senate Priority to the period

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens431 May 2002 DIGIDOC : 3 sections Digidoc 1 : Documents and Records of the House of Representatives ( ) – pages Digidoc 2 : Documents and Records of the Senate ( ) – pages Digidoc 3 : Moniteur belge (Statute Book) ( ) – pages – Cooperation with the Justice Department

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens531 May 2002 DIGIDOC : 4 objectives Archiving Retrieval Digitisation Reproduction

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens631 May 2002 FILM FIRST APPROACH Recommended in 1992 by the Commission on Preservation and Access Standard in the world of preservation Microfilm as preservation tool for the long term Digitisation of microfilm as access tool

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens731 May 2002 BENEFITS OF THE HYBRID APPROACH Microfilm captures content in an integral and authentic way Microfilm as analogue back-up for restoration No considerable higher cost price Microfilming is safer for damaged paper Scanning of microfilm : no quality loss

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens831 May 2002 LONG TERM PRESERVATION “Digitally born” documents converted to microfilm COM-computer output to microfilm Two copies of every digitised document printed on permanent paper and stored on different locations

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens931 May 2002 OPERATIONAL REALISATION OF THE PROJECT Cooperation between 3 Departments : General Affairs, Computer Department, Library Library : Studio for micrographic & electronic archiving two operators, two clerks two microfilmscanners Bell & Howell 3000 D scanning at 400 dpi TIFF CITT group 4, conversion to PDF Image capture software : Powerfilm (Infocap) Guidance committee to monitor the project

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens1031 May 2002 OUTSOURCING MICROFILMING pages to microfilm General call for proposals Dutch film Microformat systems Reliable quality Masterfilms : panchromatic halogensilverfilm (neg. pol.) Usercopies : negative diazofilm

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens1131 May 2002 OUTSOURCING DIGITISATION MICROFILMS Decision of College of Quaestors Documents House of Representatives Limited request for proposals 6 candidatures, 1 company remained Test : digitisation of images and introduction metadata Margin of error widely exceeded : tender invalid Conclusion : private companies have no practice with parliamentary documents (scanning OK, metadata problematic)

ECPRD seminar in Brussels - Paul Sarens1231 May 2002 QUO VADIS DIGIDOC ? Insuccessful outsourcing : loss of time, but instructive experience Some parts of the project can better be done “in house” Priority to the Documents and Records ( ) of the House and the Senate Introduction of keywords and Optical Character Recognition need further consideration Objective : make this important parliamentary information accessible to the general public

ECPRD seminar in Brussels1331 May 2002 Thank you for your attention Paul SARENS