The National Library of Spain renews its agreement for the digitization of works with Telefónica

After digitizing in the last six years 25 million pages of 150.000 works from the National Library of Spain, This institution has renewed its agreement with Telefónica to continue 'virtualizing' its funds and making them accessible openly and free of charge.

The systematic digitization plan that began with the National Library of Spain in the year 2008 with Telefónica has just been renewed with a new agreement signed today (see attached image) by Ana Santos Aramburo, director of the BNE, and Carlos López Blanco, director of public affairs and regulation Telefónica.

These funds, freely accessible from the portals of the Hispanic Digital Library (BDH) and the Digital Newspaper Library (for specific consultation of the historical press), represent 25.000.000 of pages scanned, thanks to what has been achieved 150.000 titles of the different types of materials found in the BNE (drawings, engravings, photographs, sheet music, printed and handwritten books, sound records, cartographic material, magazines and newspapers,…) are available to any citizen around the world.

The digitization process of the BNE focuses fundamentally on public domain funds, that is to say, those that are free of copyright. With the signing of this new agreement between both entities, the process of digitizing funds is maintained and the dissemination of these freely available materials is enhanced.. The current challenge is to make all this heritage known., consulted and open to society.

Next phases

The digitization of collections will focus on authors who in the coming years will enter the public domain, such as Ramón y Cajal., Lorca, Inclan Valley, Unamuno, Ramiro de Maeztu or Pedro Muñoz Seca, as well as great authors whose emblematic works are still missing to be incorporated into the BDH, like Clarín, Espronceda, Rosalia de Castro, Juan Valera or José Zorrilla…

Works of which the BNE houses the only surviving copy and whose preservation is key will also be digitized.. Also, The lines already started will continue and works of all kinds will be digitized, among which we must highlight the 6.500 player piano rolls digitized with a unique scanner designed by the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

From now on, app developments will be carried out with outstanding BDH collections, search for new users and other developments such as page turners, timelines and geolocation of works.

The annual average of visits since the year 2012 is from 440.000, with a duration of 9 minutes; what it has meant 31.000 monthly users 163 countries (21% from America and there is a significant rise in China in 2014). In total between 2008-2013 more than have been downloaded 15.000.000 of documents.

Telefónica also supports the leadership by the BNE of the Ibero-American Heritage Digital Library (BDPI), created to provide access to digital collections that in the two years with this work offers access to 210.340 digital resources and 112.00 users of 132 countries. The digital library has established itself as the most important library cooperation initiative in this geographical area and already has eight participating national libraries, to which new partners will soon join..

Integrated by the national libraries of Brazil, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Spain, Panama, Uruguay and Portugal, The future of the BDPI involves the incorporation of new libraries and the integration of new services to become one of the central projects in the world of digital culture, together with the Europeana or the Digital Public Library of America, as well as a model of cooperation and dissemination of the common heritage of these countries.

Within the framework of the Association of Ibero-American States for the Development of National Libraries of the Ibero-American countries (ABINIA) and with open source technologies, Its development has been led by the National Library of Spain based on the experience acquired in the different projects in which it participates., which opens multiple avenues for cooperation, coordination and reuse of information with the rest of the cultural world.