Volume 35, Issue 1

The University Library of Frankfurt am Main is currently in a similar situation as all other academic libraries, namely in a restructuring and reorientation phase. As a matter of course users expect to have fast, reliable and uncomplicated access to digital resources. In the context of retro digitalization the University Library has digitized monographs and journals and made them accessible via the Internet. In the long run total digitalization of the valuable stocks and accessibility via various national and international portals will provide user-friendly access from any location to all information ever printed. In the last decades a large part of the digitalization projects has covered printed works, which are normally recorded in the catalogue system of the University library. Recently manuscripts, bequests, autographs and other collections of materials from special and subject specialization schemes have been in the focus of dig­italization projects. As these are recorded in various special catalogues a standardized metadata or catalogue structure is not yet existing. Thus digitalization and ­indexing these stocks prove to be technically complicated and complex.

Since the end of last year the ETH-Library (Zü­rich Switzerland) presents ETHorama, a new search platform connecting locations within Switzerland to digital documents. Via an easy zoom into the map of Switzerland it is possible to search in the collections of pictures, articles, historical prints and maps. Beside the “geograph­ical search” searches for documents arranged within subject collections are also possible as well as keyword searches. At present ETHorama offers access to about 6 000 documents, which are connected to about 1 600 locations and areas within Switzerland. The number of locations, as well as the content will expand continuously. The par­ticular documents can be viewed as a preview upon the map. The presented link “document” leads to the complete document on the original platform. Another link leads to the Knowledge Portal, the main search platform of the ETH-Library. At present ETHorama is accessible as a beta version, another release is planned for the middle of the current year. The paper gives a short outline of the processes needed for collecting and editing the digital documents and deals in principal with the possibilities for searching and presenting these documents.

In 2014, OCR accuracy was estimated on the basis of 11,354 digitized pages of the newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung [ Allgemeine Zeitung : published in Augsburg (1807–1882), München (1882–1929).]. The evaluated collections of newspapers spanned the years 1871–1921. For the estimation, a set of error classification rules was set up, sample snippets of recognized text were chosen automatically by a script and the samples were manually evaluated. The character accuracy was estimated to lie between 94.70 percent and 97.65 percent (level of confidence: 95 percent) [Calculated with an estimated number of characters in the scan – see more under: „Problemstellung: Zeichen-Grundmenge aus dem Scan oder aus der OCR?“ in part 3.4 and further on in part 5.1.] which can be considered as fairly good. Beside character accuracy, reading order and format recognition were tested. There are multiple aspects to take into account when estimating OCR accuracy, especially in regard to comparing different evaluations in which factors like error classification or the purpose of the respective digitization might vary.

Bibliotheken: Tore zur Welt des Wissens. 101. Deutscher Bibliothekartag in Hamburg 2012. Hrsg. von Klaus-Rainer Brintzinger und Ulrich Hohoff unter Mitw. von Benjamin Rücker. Hildesheim: Olms 2013. 338 S., Ill. – ISBN 978-3-487-14888-5. € 49,80 ( Frank Förster Geozentrum Hannover, Bibliothek/Archiv) Handbuch Bibliothek: Geschichte, Aufgaben, Perspektiven. Hrsg. von Konrad Umlauf und Stefan Gradmann. Stuttgart: Metzler 2012. IX, 422 S. – ISBN 3-476-02376-6. € 69,95 ( Klaus-Rainer Brintzinger Universitätsbibliothek LMU München) Grundlagen der praktischen Information und Dokumentation. Hrsg. von Rainer Kuhlen und Klaus Laisiepen. 6., völlig neu gefasste Ausgabe. Berlin u. a.: De Gruyter 2013. XVII, 696 S., Ill. – ISBN 3-11-025822-6. € 159,95 ( Frank Förster Geozentrum Hannover, Bibliothek/Archiv) Martin Paul Eve: Open Access and the Humanities: ­Contexts, Controversies and the Future. Cambridge ­University Press 2014. 209 S. – ISBN 978-1-10-748401-6. £ 30,00. Open Access via Cambridge Books Online. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316161012. ( Konstanze Söllner Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg)