21.05.2020
The National Library (NK) has digitised the first hundreds of photographs from the ČTK’s photo archive. The pilot phase of the joint project was aimed at checking the organisational and technical aspects of the process. The ČTK makes its digitised photos available in the fotobanka.ctk.cz online photobank, where a new section, ČTK&NK Digitisation, has been created.
"The trial period has confirmed that our cooperation works very well. We have managed to resolve all the main challenges of the project and we can now advance to a routine regime," National Library head Martin Kocanda said.
"The digitisation does not consist merely in photo scanning. It involves a number of other steps, including the alignment of metadata with digitised photographic reports, the cleaning of photos before scanning, and the putting of photos into new envelopes to prevent further degradation of the original carriers caused by external influences," said ČTK Director General Jiří Majstr.
The ČTK photo archive contains more than seven million images from the turn of the 20th century up to date. Since the beginning of the new millennium the ČTK has been taking photographs solely in digital form. Since the 1990s, the ČTK has been digitising its archive photos itself.
Jiří Majstr and Martin Kocanda agreed on the joint project of digitisation of the ČTK photo archive in March 2019. “The National Library has a state-of-art digital workplace that shows a minimum error rate in digitising our archives. This was one of the reasons why the ČTK decided to establish partnership with us,” said Kocanda. At the end of last year, the Ministry of Culture provided the National Library with funds for the project.
The ČTK Photobank is a unique photographic source of information on significant political, social, sport and cultural events. The agreement between both institutions also enables access to the digitised photos for research purposes in the building of the National Library.
ČTK photo reporters at a motorbike race in 1931.