Regina PI Project

Sofia City Library in a consortium with “Ivan Vazov” National Library Plovdiv, “Peyo Yavorov” Regional Library Bourgas and “Petko R. Slaveikov” Regional Library Veliko Tarnovo has been working on a project for developing “United Catalogue of Periodicals Prior to 1944 Digital Collections”.
The project is financed by the fund “Scientific Research” of the Ministry of Education and Science.
The project REGINA-PI aims to unite catalogues of periodicals, held in four of the biggest libraries with rich collections, and to make them available on the Internet. Digitalization of periodicals dated before 1944 is being started. The goal is to provide up-to-date access to the content of the not so well known to the public periodicals and preserving this as part of our national heritage.
Bulgaria had fallen behind in the process of developing, organizing and presenting digital information on the Internet.
The project (2 years fixed term) has a budget of 360,000 BGN and comprises of the following:
1. Development of a unified catalogue with online access via Internet available to patrons, and a central server complex used for storage of the digital contents.
2. Setting up workstations for digitalization of periodicals in the three libraries (in “Ivan Vazov” National Library this type of workstation is already in place).
3. Full integration of all parts of the unified system and introduction of new technology for scanning, graphic design and information development of digital copies.
The first stage of the project will have the “United Catalogue for Periodicals Prior to 1944” completed in partnership with Soft Lib.
In Sofia City Library the following have already taken place:
1. A server complex and a storage server were built;
2. A scanner BookEye3 Retro Color A1 was purchased. It enables fast and high quality digitalization of a huge number of library materials, without the risk of damaging, wasting or destruction of the original. The scanner is a high-class and is the first of its kind at a public library.
3. Storage server placed in the “Ivan Vazov” National Library.
Prima Soft made the technical decisions.
During the second stage of the project the libraries in Veliko Turnovo and Bourgas will be supplied with scanners. This will open the possibility that the libraries located in four major regions of Bulgaria will become centers for digitizing collections from smaller libraries, chitalishta, museums, and galleries.