Description
The main objective of the project consists in the digitization of all medieval documents (prior to 1600) preserved by the National Archives of Romania and the creation of an online-accessible database. Until now there has been no project aimed at the digitization of documents held by the National Archives of Romania. The main target group of the project consists in medieval history scholars: professors, doctoral and postgraduate students from universities in Romania, researchers at the Institute of History of the Romanian Academy, secondary school teachers and individual researchers. Another target group are scientists (professors, PhD students, students, etc.) from Hungary, interested in medieval history of Transylvania. German historians interested in the history of Germans in medieval Transylvania are an important target group. However historians in Moldova are another target group. To facilitate public access to the information - inventory and document images - an online database will be created. During the development of the project, the Norwegian partner will bring his know-how.
Summary of project results
The medieval documents are the oldest and most brittle documents from the National Archives of Romania. Through the digitization, these documents are preserved for future, because the researchers will use them into a database, without their physical manipulation, which is no longer necessary. On the other hand, the medieval documents are dispersed in 35 branches of the National Archives along the country, which means a lot of difficulties and higher costs for research. The database gathers virtually all these medieval documents in one place, which means the research of the medieval history will be easier and less expensive. More, the database contains a lot of tools, as abstract, names of persons, names of places, subjects, dates, issuers etc. which will help the user to identify the documents needed for his research. All medieval documents prior to 1600 are inventoried in the database created through the project. The medieval documents from the online database will have an important contribution to a better understanding of the medieval history of Romanians, Hungarians, Germans etc. During the implementation period 30.088 archival units were digitized, 44,000 documents were inventoried. The database is available online on
www.arhivamedievala.ro and consists of documents regarding the history of Romanians, Hungarians, Slovakians, Ukrainians (from Transkarpatia), Germans, and others.
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian partner, the Norwegian National Archives, played an important role in organizing the project, verifying the quality of the database, and promoting it at the launching conference. The Norwegian partner played an important role in organizing project activities thanks to the Norwegian experience in digitization starting since 2006. The organization and management of the activities and sub-activities needed to digitize documents has benefited from the Norwegian experience since a certain succession of operations is required, from identification and scanning to uploading the documents into the database. Throughout the project, consultations with the Norwegian partner have streamlined the management process.