In a new centre for digitalisation in the centre of Prague, Czech documents threatened by erosion are microfilmed and converted to digital format with Norwegian support. The centre was officially opened in January this year, fully installed with modern technological equipment.
The Municipal Library of Prague was awarded a €403,500 million grant in 2006 for its Historical Pragensia project (HISPRA), aimed at saving historical manuscripts and other rare documents from the 19th century. The process of digitalising the library collection got under way in end 2007, and according to Eva Merínská with the Municipal Library of Prague, around 350,000 pages will be converted to digital format and made publicly available on the internet within the next three years. The original documents will be safely archived.
The digitalisation of the Municipal Library of Prague’s collections forms part of a systematic effort in the Czech Republic to ensure the availability of important Czech documents for generations to come. The planning of the Historical Pragensia project had already been initiated when several Czech libraries were damaged due to flooding in 2002, urging the libraries to transfer their historical documentation to digital format. While the project initially suffered from lack of sufficient economic support, Norway Grants and its priority sector for cultural heritage offered new, crucial funding opportunities for the library. The library plans to use the Norwegian support to convert around 10,000 of their total 100,000 documents to digital format.
The Czech Republic is the third largest beneficiary of the financial mechanisms, receiving a total €110.9 million over the five year period 2004-2009. To date, 43 Czech projects, programmes and funds have been approved. Information on all supported activities in the Czech Republic are available in the EEA and Norway Grants’ project database
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