Digitisation

Since 1997 the Munich Digitisation Centre (MDZ) handles the digitisation and online publication of the holdings of the Bavarian State Library. As a part of the Digital Library unit of the library it provides one of the largest and fastest growing digital collections in Germany. Several high-quality planetary scanners, suitable for all types of media and all kinds of formats, ensure a professional digitisation of any kind of books and manuscripts up to a size of A0 with an output size of up to 600 ppi.

The digitisation policy reflects the traditional special collection fields of the Bavarian State Library: History, Classical Antiquity, Eastern Europe, Musicology. It comprises manuscripts, early prints, modern books, maps and photographic collections as well as journals and newspapers. A automised Workflow with scaleable repository system offers the opportunity to realize an efficient digitisation even of large collections.

The Munich Digitisation Centre assists and advises other institutions in digitisation matters and offers a digisation on demand service. Apart from mass digitisation efforts, the Digital Library unit engages in collaborative scholarly projects.