Speaker
Annika Peurell (KTH – Royal Institute of Technology)
Abstract
Today, “digital” and “digitization” are commonly used terms in various contexts, often with different meanings. At the Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, as well as in society at large, the concept of digitization is widely used for business development through digital working methods and technical solutions, enabling us to do things in entirely new ways or do entirely new things.
Libraries have traditionally used digital technology primarily for managing, creating, and providing access to information about their collections (metadata) and, for various reasons, have not often converted information resources into digital formats. Nevertheless, the expectation for open access of these sources is steadily increasing.
Material digitization of previous printed research results or other relevant information are not always clarified in the strategies for digital transformation of organizations. This is also the case at KTH, where digitalization is one of the four pillars of the institution’s activities. A recently approved KTH Digitalization Strategy for the period 2023-2027 presents the vision: “A digitized KTH secures creativity, accessibility, and utility for education and research.”
A pilot project in the KTH Library aims to include Material digitization of early research publications as a sub-goal in the Digitalization Strategy. In parallel with the possibilities offered by digital accessibility and its many opportunities, the conditions for a comprehensive material digitization project to ensure both access and secure preservation of KTH’s accumulated knowledge heritage need to be explored. Challenges such as accessibility to the material, a secured complete overview of complex content and it´s metadata, copyright and licences are some issues that will be investigated.
An appropriate target in time could be for KTH to provide its published knowledge heritage digitally to the research community and interested public by the time of its 200th anniversary in 2027.