On April 5, Mr Bogdan Zdrojewski, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage,  dr Maria Hulicka, the Jagiellonian University Bursar and prof. dr hab. Adam Juszkiewicz, the Jagiellonian University Rector’s Representative for Structural Funds signed an agreement on co-financing the “Digital Jagiellonian Library” project.

In July 2009, the project was placed on the list of key projects within the framework of the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program. On January 6, 2010 the Minister of Culture and National Heritage made a decision to co-finance the project, using European Regional Development Fund, to the amount of 5.136 million zloty.

The project,  managed by the Jagiellonian Library, will include, among other things, a network of virtual reading rooms available online free of charge. Among the reading materials successively brought to public attention will be digitalized versions of the most precious, popular and the most endangered items kept by the Jagiellonian Library and later by other Jagiellonian University units.
As the online access will not be limited, the originals will be withdrawn from public circulation.

In the first stage (2010-2012) we will digitalize and publish online the most precious items from the special collections (such as manuscripts, old and rare prints, music scores, graphics and maps), as well as periodicals from the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Thus by the end of 2012 we will have digitalized such titles as „Dziennik Polski”, „Gazeta Lwowska”, „Gazeta Narodowa”, „Głos Narodu”, „Nowa Reforma”, „Nowości Ilustrowane”, „Słowo Polskie”, „Sprawozdania Stenograficzne Sejmu Galicyjskiego” and 215 only surviving copies of other Polish periodicals. All in all we will bring to public 1222 periodicals and 1644 books and special items.

From the technical point of view all 19th century and 20th century materials will be optically scanned running OCR (Optical Character Recognition), including  separation of the text from the background. This will ensure the reader will be able to do the full search on the available file, using their own search criteria, and to remove the text background, which will enhance the font contrast (a standard option for the visually impaired).

On the strength of law  the Jagiellonian Library,  as the only university library in Poland, collects one copy of all printed materials and thus  plays the role of a national repository. The project will help to preserve and archive  the originals and to make digitalized and microfilm copies.

More information on the project can be found at
http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/akt/jbc/jbc1.php