Completed Projects

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2012-2013

Project description: The DFG Special Subject Collection 6.23 Middle East incl. North Africa (SSG VO) at the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt Halle (ULB Saxony-Anhalt) coordinates MENALIB, aka the Virtual Library of the Middle East, which was created between 2000 and 2005 thanks to support by the DFG. Within the framework of the MENALIB portal, initially the deeper indexation of printed and electronic scholarly publications as well as the link between digital bibliographic records and document delivery functions were advanced. Between 2009 and 2011, in a first project funded by the DFG (“Digitisation of SSG 6.23 Vorderer Orient”) free and unlimited access to electronic full-text materials was finally provided via the specialised document repository MENAdoc for 1,750 volumes of particularly important or frequently used SSG literature, irrespective of publication location and time. In a following project based on the latter, such free and unlimited access is now to be realised for an additional 1,300 volumes from the SSG’s holdings between 2011 and 2012.

For the digitisation process, both copyright-protected titles of scholarly series as well as copyright-free material relevant to the SSG were selected, with the material stemming predominantly from the holdings of the library of the German Orientalist Society (DMG).

The project can be seen as a further step on the way to an extensive digital repository of electronic full texts related to Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, whilst also taking into account an, in terms of subject quality and frequency of use, outstanding section of the holdings of the ULB Halle.

In the long-term, the ULB Halle aims for the expansion of the digital library of the SSG VO by advancing the full-text repository MENAdoc, whose starting point lies in the project presented here. In regard to this, the project aims a) at the continuous digitisation of copyright-protected literature (in accordance with publisher agreements) which prove to be of particular importance for the corresponding subjects , b) at the digitisation of the entirety of SSG VO-relevant old holdings being copyright-free of the ULB Halle (amounting to approx. 12,000 volumes) c) at the integration of SSG VO-relevant holdings of other libraries in additional digitisation projects and d) at the continued collecting, indexing and mirroring of freely accessible full-text documents on MENAdoc as well as the connection of MENAdoc with other subject-relevant full-text repositories of national and international partners.

Supplementary information and publications:

The MENAdoc homepage provides further information on the current progress of the project: menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2012 – 2014

Project description:

The University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt can call about 80,000 prints from the 17th century its own. Of those about 59,700 titles are already indexed in the retrospective national bibliographic index of prints published in the German-speaking world (VD 17). About 10,500 of these titles are part of the Ponickau Library, the most important historical special collection of the ULB. These were fully digitised in the years 2007 – 2009.

The subsequent project “Digitisation of the Prints of Mainstream Literature of the 17th century recorded in the VD 17” further complements the digitisation project Ponickau. In this regard, approximately 5,000 17th century titles from the ULB’s holdings are digitised. The selection of titles to be digitised is to include primarily the more widely distributed works, is conducted in close consultation with other libraries (SLUB Dresden, UB Rostock and HAB Wolfenbüttel) and happens in the context of the VD 17 – Master Plan for Digitisation, which provides the frame for entirely digitising the corpus of VD 17-works as soon as possible.

Supplementary information and publications:

Access to the digitised materials is possible via the project’s homepage.

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 6 months

Project description: The University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt (ULB) is in charge of the pilot stage of the “Index of 18th century prints published in the German-speaking world” (Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts (VD 18)). In addition to the ULB, the Staatsbibliothek Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the Sächsische Landesbibliothek-Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, the Professorial Chair of Historical and Cultural Information Processing at the University of Cologne as well as the German library networks GBV, BVB, SWB and HBZ are involved. In addition to the bibliographic indexation, the digitisation of the prints is deemed an equally important component of the project.
In the future, the resulting products will be made available to users via a central access point. Therefore, a sub-project conducted at the ULB Saxony-Anhalt is working on the conceptual development of a portal solution for the VD 18, which will result in the technical implementation of a prototype portal.

vd18.de

Funding organisation: DFG   

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2009-2011

Project description:

The DFG Special Subject Collection 6.23 Middle East incl. North Africa (SSG VO), located at the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt-Halle (ULB Saxony-Anhalt), coordinates the Virtual Library for the Middle East MENALIB, which was created in the time from 2000 to 2005 with support by the DFG. Since the MENALIB portal up to now focused on the deeper indexation of printed and electronic scholarly publications as well as connecting digital bibliographic records and document delivery functions, this project aims to realise free and direct access to more electronic full-text materials, irrespective of location and time, for 1,750 volumes of particularly important or frequently used SSG literature, which is stored on the specialised document repository MENAdoc of the ULB Halle.

For the digitisation process, both copyright-protected titles of scholarly series as well as copyright-free material relevant to the SSG were selected, with the material stemming predominantly from the holdings of the library of the German Orientalist Society (DMG).

The project can be seen as the first step on the way to an extensive digital repository of electronic full texts related to Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, whilst also taking into account an, in terms of subject quality and frequency of use, outstanding section of the holdings of the ULB Halle.

The long-term strategy of the ULB Halle for the implementation of the digital library of the SSG VO via the full-text repository MENAdoc, the starting point of which is the present project, aims a) at the continuous digitisation of copyright-protected literature (in accordance with publisher agreements) which prove to be of particular importance for the corresponding subjects, b) at the digitisation of the entirety of SSG VO-relevant old holdings being copyright-free of the ULB Halle (amounting to approx. 12,000 volumes) c) oat the integration of SSG VO-relevant holdings of other libraries in additional digitisation projects and d) at the continued collecting, indexing and mirroring of freely accessible full-text documents on MENAdoc as well as the connection of MENAdoc with other subject-relevant full-text repositories of national and international partners.

Supplementary information and publications:  

The MENAdoc homepage provides further information on the current progress of the project: http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 24 months

Project description: Within the scope of the pilot stage of the project “Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts (VD 18)”, the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt (ULB) aims for the digitisation and in-depth indexation of 10,000 18th century prints, starting with the in-depth indexation of its unique holdings. The ULB Saxony-Anhalt owns about 175,000 18th century prints, of which 115,694 prove to be relevant for the “Index of 18th century prints published in the German-speaking world” (VD 18) and thus are to be indexed there. The ULB is further going to catalogue and digitise 10,000 prints with a page volume of approx. 2.5 million pages in the span two years. The digital prints are then going to be indexed in-depth by providing structural data. Thus, these digital copies offer the possibility for persistent citation up to page level by using the URN granular procedure. The digitised material is then enriched with metadata created by automated processes and offers the possibility of import and exchange to various reference systems, initially primarily those of the consortia, via OAI. Partners in this pilot stage are the Staatsbibliothek Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the Sächsische Landesbibliothek-Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, the Professorial Chair of Historical and Cultural Information Processing at the University of Cologne as well as the German library networks GBV, BVB, SWB and HBZ.

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Physical resources

Running time: 2009 – 2010 (24 months pilot stage)

Project description:

The project “Digitisation and Indexation of 18th century prints published in the German-speaking world” (Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts (VD 18)) aims to implement a digital library of the 18th century German-speaking world complete with a high level of indexation. Thus, the tradition of DFG-funded cataloguing and digitisation projects for previous centuries (VD 16, VD 17) is carried on, but also supplemented by the use of new methodological and technical approaches. In this pilot stage, new control processes and different business models will be introduced at the partner libraries for being able to ensure the smooth cooperative processing of about 100,000 of the total of about 600,000 18th century titles within the two years planned. Further, the aim of the pilot stage is to construe a robust quantity and time framework for the main phase, to identify suitable libraries and to optimise procedures used for efficient cooperation of as many libraries of as many different consortia as possible.

The pilot stage of the VD 18 is being lead and managed by the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt. Partners in this pilot stage are the Staatsbibliothek Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the Sächsische Landesbibliothek-Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, the Professorial Chair of Historical and Cultural Information Processing at the University of Cologne as well as the German library networks GBV, BVB, SWB and HBZ.

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2009 – 2010 (24 months)

Project description: The University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt (ULB) has the largest historical book collection of all libraries in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Among others, this collection is comprised of a large part of the library of the University Wittenberg, which was transferred to Halle after the unification with the Prussian Friedrichs University. As is generally known, Wittenberg was one of the most important printing and publishing locations in Germany in the 16th century and the most prominent publication centre of the Reformation. Thanks to this circumstance, the ULB owns a total of about 28,000 16th century prints. Of these, 17,153 proved to be relevant for the VD 16 and so have been listed in the corresponding national bibliographic index since 1991. Thereof, 1,736 prints are unique in holdings to the ULB.

Within the scope of this project, 8,051 16th century prints from the holdings of the ULB Saxony-Anhalt, which are listed in the VD 16 and do not overlap with the holdings of the Bavarian State Library in Munich (BSB), are to be digitised, indexed in-depth using structural data and then presented on the internet.

The volume of pages to be digitised amounts to approx. 1.8 million pages.

As a result, the relevant 16th century prints at the ULB Saxony-Anhalt are going to be processed in various automated steps and then completely digitised in order to accurately complement the VD 16 digitised holdings of the BSB Munich. Thus being the aim to enrich the national bibliographic index VD 16 with digital content as part of the DFG’s VD 16/ VD 17 action line.

As a result, these digital copies offer the possibility for persistent citation up to page level by using the URN granular procedure.

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2007 – 2009

Project description: The Bibliotheca Ponickaviana proves to be an important special collection of the University and State Library Saxony-Anhalt. It originates from the holdings of the old Wittenberg University Library, large parts of which were transferred to the Halle University Library after the unification of the universities of Wittenberg and Halle in 1817. Assembled by the Privy Councillor of War Johann August von Ponickau (1718-1802), who donated it to the University of Wittenberg in 1789, and later continuously expanded, it presents itself as a unique collection of literary and other evidence to the history and geography of the former Prussian province of Saxony as well as the Anhalt territories, the Kingdom of Saxony and Thuringia.

Supplementary information and publications:

Access to the digitised materials is possible via the project’s homepage:  http://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/pon 

Related Articles:

• Sommer, Dorothea: Digitalisierung von Drucken des 17. Jahrhunderts an der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Halle: Werkstattbericht zu einem DFG-Projekt der Aktionslinie VD 16/ VD 17. ABI Technik 27 (2007) 4, 236-247.
• Sommer, Dorothea, Schöning-Walter, Christa, Heiligenhaus, Kay: URN Granular: Persistente Identifizierung und Adressierung von Einzelseiten digitalisierter Drucke; ein Projekt der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek und der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt. In: ABI-Technik. 28 (2008) 2, 106-114

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2008 – 2010

Project description: SARDS3 is constructed as a cooperation project of the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies – Department of Indology – at the University of Bonn, the Institute for Ancient Studies – Seminar for Indology – at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and the Department of Asian Studies – Institute for Indology and Iranian Studies – at the LMU Munich.

SARDS3 is an online database which, based on SARDS2, in th end is supposed to contain approximately 93,000 literature citations of bibliographically dependent research papers from journals, conference proceedings, Festschriften and other collective publications relating to the fields of Indology and South Asian Studies. SARDS3 is supposed to achieve an almost complete documentation of the entire South Asian studies dependent research publications for the period of 1797 to 2000.

The selection for retrospective cataloguing is going to be carried out half by looking into subject segmentation, so by taking into account the respective research foci, half by purely pragmatic aspects based on journal titles held primarily at the respective locations (Bonn, Halle, Munich). In this regard, it is possible to draw upon the rich holdings of the specialist libraries of the selected locations, which have been continuously maintained since the 19th century (all together amounting to around 80,000 volumes).

Supplementary information and publications:

• Homepage of the SARDS3 Project
• SARDS3 Database

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2008 – 2009

Project description:

The feasibility study is intended to show the conditions necessary for an “Index of 18th century prints published in the German-speaking world”(VD 18). This endeavour is hugely influenced by numerous organisational, technical and financial parameters, which have impact on such an extensive and long-term project. In the course of this study, different models of a VD 18 organisational and cost models are developed and presented.

Supplementary information and publications:

• Klaus Haller/: Digitalisierung und Erschließung der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts / Klaus Haller. – Halle(Saale): Univ.- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, 2007. – VI, 221S. – (Schriften zum Bibliotheks- und Büchereiwesen in Sachsen-Anhalt ;88. – ISBN 978-3-86010-968-7
• VD 18: Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts. Beiträge eines DFG-Rundgesprächs in der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, veranstaltet am 5.5.2004 / hrsg. von Heiner Schnelling – Halle (Saale): Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, 2004.- Ill, 139 S.- (Schriften zum Bibliotheks- und Büchereiwesen in Sachsen-Anhalt; 86)
• Fabian, Claudia ; Sommer, Dorothea: Erste Planungen für ein Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts (VD 18). In: Bibliotheksdienst, 38 (2004), 12, S. 1565-1571.

Title: Scholarly indexation, picturisation and digitisation of the estate of Leopold Zunz at the Jewish National and University Library Jerusalem

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2006 – 2009

Project description: The handwritten estate of Leopold Zunz, one of the central figures of the “Science of Judaism,” founded in the 19th century, was rescued from the National Socialists in 1939 and has since been in possession of the National Library of Israel  (formerly Jewish National and University Library) Jerusalem. The aims of the project were to permanently preserve the valuable sources on German-Jewish culture and science of the 19th century contained in the estate by microfilming and open up the access of the estate to a wide range of users.

The picturisation and digitisation of the entire archive including its unique materials not only saved the respective documents from disintegration, but also enabled unrestricted, direct and worldwide access to the materials, which had formerly only been accessible to very few researchers without considerable effort. Future research into the “Science of Judaism” and the role of its founding father Leopold Zunz will undoubtedly benefit from the indexation actions carried out and thus open up a new chapter in the study of the “Science of Judaism”.

The project was realised in close cooperation between several specialised institutes in Halle, Düsseldorf and Jerusalem in cooperation with the “German Archives” department of the National Library in Jerusalem, the ULB Halle, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin and the DFG’s Special Subject Collection 7.7 “Judaism” at the University Library in Frankfurt/Main.

Supplementary information and publications:

The project’s website can be accessed via http://www.jewish-archives.org.

Furthermore, the results of the projects have been published:

• Giuseppe Veltri, Evelyn Burkhardt, Grit Schorch, Till Schicketanz, Lutz Wiederhold: Die Digitalisierung des Leopold Zunz-Archivs : ein Projekt des Leopold Zunz Centers der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg im Kontext der Digitalen Bibliothek der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt. In: ABI-Technik : Zeitschrift für Automation, Bau und Technik im Archiv-, Bibliotheks- und Informationswesen 29(2009), 78-89

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2007 – 2009

Project description:

The Journal of the German Orientalist Society (ZDMG) is the most tradition-steeped, ongoing publication in the field of German Oriental Studies. Since its start of publication in 1847, the articles published have examined the languages and cultures of the regions of Europe, Asia and Africa subsumed under the term “Orient” from various perspectives.

Three other journals ,published by the DMG in the past, further complement the contents of the ZDMG, all especially focusing on individual orientalist disciplines.

In the course of the project, 132,000 digital images of approx. 150 volumes of these journals (published up to 2006) were created. Following this, the text elements written in Latin letters were indexed via OCR for providing a full-text search. Additionally, all these digitised journal contents were made available in the MENAdoc repository, a segment of the Digital Library of the ULB Halle based on the DMS Visual Library. Access to the digitised journals thus is possible without restriction.

The project was realised within the framework of the Virtual Library of the Middle East MENALIB. The resulting metadata was made available for transfer to other portals such as DigiZeitschriften, SAVIFA and ZVDD.

Supplementary information and publications:

Access to the digitised journals is possible via the homepage of the full-text repository MENAdoc http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/.  

Title: Cataloguing the Jacob M. Landau Turkish Research Library – Digitisation and full-text search provision of copyright-free materials from the Landau Library

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Physical resources

Running time: 2006 – 2009

Project description:

In 2003, the ULB Saxony-Anhalt was able to acquire the extensive academic library of the internationally renowned Turkey historian Prof. Dr. Jacob M. Landau (Jerusalem) being unparalleld in its thematic unity. The holdings predominantly consist of rare books, that had not yet been listed in any German or international online catalogues. The special library is comprised of  approx. 3,000 monographs and periodical volumes, mainly primary and secondary literature in Turkish on the matter of  history of political movements in Turkey. The collection was formally and contentually indexed in the PICA system of the Common Library Network. At the same time, copyright-free materials from the collection, amounting to approx. 400 volumes with approx. 51,000 pages, were digitised.

Supplementary information and publications:

Access to the digitised documents of the Turkish Research Library Landau is possible via the start page of the full-text repository MENAdoc http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/.

Running time: 2008 (6 months)

Project description:

The aim of the project was to develop and test a procedure for the persistent identification of individual pages within a web publication. This proves to be of fundamental importance for the citability and verifiability of web publications when being reused in secondary publications.

For this procedure, the Uniform Resource Name (URN), which previously stood for the persistent identification of an individual work in its entirety, was extended for individual page reference.

A corresponding image bar displaying the URN is inserted into the digitised material at page level. The harvesting process by the German National Library is set to happen on a regular basis. Within the framework of the project, approx. 10,000 prints with approx. 600,000 pages to be clearly identified were digitised and equipped with persistent addresses. Project partners are the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt, the German National Library and the company semantics GmbH.

Article:

• Sommer, Dorothea, Schöning-Walter, Christa, Heiligenhaus, Kay: URN Granular: Persistente Identifizierung und Adressierung von Einzelseiten digitalisierter Drucke; ein Projekt der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek und der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt. In: ABI-Technik. 28 (2008) 2, 106-114

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Physical resources

Running time: 2008

Project description:

The DFG-Viewer is a browser-based web service for displaying digitised material rooted in decentralised library repositories. Users thus are able to apply one interface for viewing a wide range digitised media. This offers the possibility to browse through a work, view and download the individual digitised items in multiple resolutions and, if desired, switch to the web presentation of the respective library to take advantage of further options there. The DFG Viewer is based on the free CMS TYPO3 and can be used free of charge by anyone interested.

The viewer was developed by the SLUB Dresden in cooperation with three other libraries undertaking mass digitisation projects: the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt, the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München. Further support was provided by the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen and the Staatsbibliothek Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz.

Supplementary information and publications:

• http://www.dfg-viewer.de

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel

Running time: 2006 – 2009

Project description:

In January 1998, the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt took over care for the special subject collection 6.23 Middle East incl. North Africa (SSG VO) from the UB Tübingen. The organisational preparation for the transfer of tasks made it necessary to begin acquiring titles, especially original-language titles, from the priority region in Halle about four months prior to the official start of the ULB’s responsibility. The library therefore received extensive deliveries of corresponding titles from the priority region since September 1997. Because the staff responsible for cataloguing in the SSG VO however could not be hired until 1.3.1998, the time lag further increased. Thus, when work began in the SSG VO, there were already about 3,000 titles of original-language (mainly Arabic and Turkish) literature which could not be included in the catalogue of the ULB Halle due to the constant arrival of new deliveries. The backlog in formal indexing that arose when SSG 6.23 was taken over was caught up by support of the DFG.

Supplementary information and publications:  

The catalogued titles can be researched in the OPAC of the ULB Halle and the catalogue databases of the GBV.

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 1996 – 2008

Project description:

With the “Index of 17th century prints published in the German-speaking world” (VD17), the BSB Munich, the SBPK Berlin, the HAB Wolfenbüttel, the ULB Saxony-Anhalt, the SLUB Dresden, the SUB Göttingen, the HAB Weimar and the Research Library Gotha are aiming to collectively compile a retrospective national bibliography for the period 1601-1700. All German-language printed works as well as all works printed and published in the historical German-speaking area, irrespective of their language, are therefore taken into account. In this regard, the ULB Saxony-Anhalt has already catalogued approx. 77,000 VD 17-relevant prints since 1996. The cataloguing of the works in a database of the GBV is carried out by autopsy of the originals. For further information and to facilitate the differentiation of editions, digital images of selected key pages of the prints are attached to the titles. As of 2009, the database contains about 270,400 titles with 650,000 ownership data and about 730,000 digital images. The database is set to be constantly expanded and to be always being up to date.

Supplementary information and publications:

• www.vd17.de
• Zwölf Jahre Projektarbeit am VD 17 in der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt – eine Bilanz. In: Mitteilungsblatt der Bibliotheken in Niedersachsen und Sachsen-Anhalts. – Hannover : Landesbibl., 2008, 138, S. 9-16
• Sommer, Dorothea: Das DFG-Projekt `Verzeichnis der Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts`: Katalogisierung, Verfilmung und Digitalisierungsarbeiten an der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt. in: Hochschulbibliotheken des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt. Magdeburg: Kultusministerium des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, 2001. S.69-77

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2000 – 2005    

Project description:

The Virtual Library of the Middle East / North Africa MENALIB was developed with the aim to make the entirety of the “new media” available for specialised information in all areas of society, especially research on the Middle East and North Africa. The most important goal was to unite spatially dispersed resources in a cooperative online structure. In line with the classic library mission, the main task of the MENALIB portal is the electronically supported collection, indexation and distribution of information. In this process of information supply included are both, information already stored digitally as well as information previously only available in conventional form, but now converted into digital format and distributed electronically. Concerning the organisation of the Virtual Library, the ULB Halle aims for the creation of sustainable, international, cooperative structures and close collaboration with partners from the respective subject sciences and the information sector. Since the end of the funding period in 2005, MENALIB has been further expanded by applying resources stemming from the ULB Halle.

Supplementary information and publications:  

• Homepage of the MENALIB Portal: www.menalib.de
• Wiederhold, Lutz: Menalib : die Virtuelle Fachbibliothek Vorderer Orient/Nordafrika. In: Bibliotheksdienst. – Berlin : ZLB. – Bd. 35.2001, 10, S. 1327-1336

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel

Running time: 2002 – August 2006

Project description:

The University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt owns about 400 occidental manuscripts from the 8th to the 15th century. The collection of medieval German manuscripts of various provenance was only partially known to scholars. Due to the special importance of the faculty of law in (Wittenberg) Halle since the founding of the university, more than a third of the manuscripts are legal manuscripts (Sachsenspiegel), often including an interesting regional history background. Other works included are, for example, recipe and medicine books as well as chronicles. Literary texts are rather scarce in the collection. But, two recently found important manuscripts deserve special attention: First, the manuscript of the “Mörin” of Sachsenheim, which has been considered lost since 1895, and the songbook of Klara Hätzlerin, as well as a hitherto unknown text witness of the “Secreta secretorum” translation of Melchior von Königshofen.

The Handschriftencensus by Schipke/ Heydeck takes into account German texts  only in exceptional cases, so if they happen to be found in predominantly Latin texts. Hildegard Herricht on the other hand only provides a printed summary and incomplete list of titles for the former Stolberg- Wernigerödische Handschriftenabteilung.

Thus, this catalogue aims to close a gap in the modern recording of manuscripts having existed since the publication of the catalogue Manuscripts from Quedlinburg (completed by Jutta Fliege in 1977) and the typewritten index of Medieval Latin Manuscripts of the ULB (prepared by Fliege in 1978/79 on behalf of the Central Institute for Manuscript Studies of the GDR).

The project:

The project’s task is the in-depth indexation and renewed description of 76 medieval German and Dutch manuscripts of the ULB Halle.

Supplementary information and publications:

• Brigitte Pfeil: Katalog der deutschen und niederländischen Handschriften des Mittelalters in der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt in Halle (Saale). Halle (Saale) 2007. 2 Bände; 545 S. (Schriften zum Bibliotheks- und Büchereiwesen in Sachsen-Anhalt Bd. 89/1 und 89/2).

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2000 – 2001  

Project description:

Within the scope of the project, a pilot study was carried out to test the computer-assisted retrospective and content indexation and digitisation of selected historical newspaper holdings of the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt. The Naumburger Tageblatt was specially selected for digitisation and content indexation. The database created as a result of this project contains test data of the 1911 volume of the newspaper in regard. The content of the newspaper was indexed using a software tool that contains classification features. Selective access down to article level is thus possible.

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel

Running time:  2000 – 2002

Project description:

Prof. Ulrich Haarmann (1942-1999) was one of the most outstanding representatives of research on the history of medieval Egypt and Syria. His private library contained, among other things, approx. 1,000 publications, some of them very rare, mostly focused on the aforementioned research. The mostly completed transfer of the relevant holdings to the ULB Halle helped to preserve the literature apparatus of an important German Islam scholar as a whole and to make the literature more accessible for any future work in these fields. After the titles had been catalogued, permanent and free access to the literature was ensured via supraregional supply of literature after incorporating them in the holdings of the ULB Halle. The titles were indexed in the PICA database of the Common Library Network (GBV). Further parts of Prof. Haarmann’s estate library were indexed at the UB Erfurt and at the ThULB.

Supplementary information and publications:  

• List of the catalogued titles

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 1995 – 1997 

Project description:

The library of the German Orientalist Society (DMG) has been collecting orientalist research literature since its foundation in 1846 and has been cared for by the UB (since 1949 the ULB) Halle since 1895. During the years of political division of Germany from 1949 to 1989, it was not possible for the ULB Halle to acquire the necessary amount of scholarly literature from Western Europe, the USA and other countries with convertible currencies (foreign exchange literature) from the funds provided for the DMG library. The resulting gaps in the holdings, especially concerning the field of Arabic studies, were closed in between 1995-1997 with the support of the DFG, Furthermore, all acquired titles were recorded in the electronic catalogue of the ULB Halle.   

Supplementary information and publications:  

The titles acquired as part of the project are listed in the OPAC of the ULB Halle and in the catalogue database of the Common Library Network (GBV).

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel

Running time:  2001 – 2003

Project description: 

Through targeted acquisition activities, the ULB Halle was able to acquire an extensive stock of Sanskrit texts in the years from 1993 to 2000. Approximately 2,000 titles of this collection have not yet been recorded in the electronic union catalogues of Germany. Among the acquired works were a large number of rare editions from the first decades of the 20th century, which could no longer or only with great difficulty be obtained second-hand. However, it was possible to acquire them through a distributor, sourcing them from the stocks of various Chowkhamba publishers in Varanasi, who specialised in Sanskrit literature. In regard to the high percentage of unique holdings, a rapid cataloguing of the titles was aspired, which was realised in between 2001 and 2003 by support from the DFG.

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel

Running time: 2001 – 2006

Project description:

In 1997, the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt in Halle (ULB Halle), thanks to the support of the Volkswagen Foundation, acquired the library of the Jewish scholar Chajim Hominer (born 15.4.1920) encompassing a total of approx. 4,000 works, mostly in Hebrew script. After taking inventory of the collection, the ULB Halle began measures for the systematic array of the holdings and, with support by the DFG, started the process of the formal and subject indexation of the collection. Since 2002, the Hominer Library has been part of the Jewish Studies collection of the Education/Theology/Jewish Studies branch library of the ULB Halle. The indexed collection is now available to users of the ULB Halle as part of the branch library’s open-access-holdings. Titles from the Hominer Collection can also be requested nationally via interlibrary loan and via the document delivery service Subito (copy delivery) – materials from the Hominer Collection are further made available in accordance to the usage regulations of the ULB Halle.

Supplementary information and publications:  

List of the catalogued titles

Funding organisation: DFG

Funding level: Personnel and physical resources

Running time: 2002 – 2004

Project description:

Carl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884) was born in Naumburg, raised and educated at the Schulpforta grammar school and later studied in Leipzig, Göttingen, Berlin and Paris. He is considered the founder of German Egyptology. His volumes of plates were created as a result of his scientific expedition to the Nile Valley and the Sudan, which was financed by the Prussian King Wilhelm IV in the years 1842-1845. The work about memorials (in folio format) shows the entire archaeological, palaeographic and historical yield of the expedition, many architectural and landscape pictures in colour, as well as maps and hieroglyphic written monuments. The exact and detailed pictures of the discoveries were drawn by the Weidenbach brothers as well as the painter Frey and, later, Georgi. During the expedition, Lespius kept a diary, which was later published by his student Eduard Naville. A large number of Egyptian monuments dismantled at that time are now on displayat the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.

The project

The project encompassed the digitisation of Lepsius’s 12 plate works, each amounting to 80-90 pages. A single volume weighs approx. 16 kg. The size of the originals is 610 x 780 mm. In addition, the diaries were digitised, all published in 5 volumes with approx. 300 pages per volume. The digitisation was carried out at the ULB by using the original works. Plate works and text volumes are digitally linked to each other, thus users are able to navigate between the descriptive text volumes and the representations of the Tafelwerk.

Access to the project site

Funding organisation: State of Saxony-Anhalt, DFG

Funding level: Personnel

Running time: 1992 – 2002

Project description:

The aim of the project was the machine-readable indexation of the inventory evidence of old stock of the ULB Saxony-Anhalt (comprising the publication dates 1501-1850), which have already been listed in the Alphabetical Main and Interim Catalogue of the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt. The digital indexation of valuable old holdings of the ULB Saxony-Anhalt in the Common Library Network enables their use by international scholars. In this process, approx. 320,000 entries were converted into machine-readable format.

Supplementary information and publications:  

The indexed titles are listed in the OPAC of the ULB Halle: http://opac.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/cgi-bin/wwwopc4menu

Funding organisation: Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung

Funding scope: Material resources  

Running time: 1999 – 2000

Project description:

With its Hartwig catalogue, the ULB has a subject catalogue at its disposal with tremendous significance for the history of libraries and science. With his catalogue, Otto Hartwig (1830-1902), the first full-time appointed library director of the University of Halle, worked out a new scholarly system that did lived up to the state of the sciences at the end of the 19th century in closest connection to library criteria.
The Hartwig catalogue was and still is often used, as it is the only catalogue that provides factual evidence of the ULB’s holdings up to 1961. Ink decomposition, paper degradation and damage to the binding however were present in many of the volumes. In the foreseeable future, this catalogue thus could only have been limited made available for use.
The digitisation of the catalogue and its availability via electronic media significantly improved the access possibilities for users. In addition, the Hartwig catalogue, visualised on the Internet, was provided with a request component that enables registered users of the ULB to order books directly from this online catalogue. The request component is based on the request function users already are familiar with from the OPAC of the Common Library Network (GBV).
With the digitisation of the Hartwig catalogue, the digitisation of all conventional catalogues of the Central Library of the ULB Saxony-Anhalt was completed.

Supplementary information and publications:  

• Homepage of the digitised real catalogue http://zkat.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/start.aspx

Articles:

• Armin Angelus, Christine Eichhorn-Berndt, Heiner Schnelling: Digitalisierung des Realkataloges (Hartwig-Katalog) der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt und seine Visualisierung im Internet, in:  Bibliotheksdienst 34 (2000) 3, 422-434 (vgl. http://bibliotheksdienst.zlb.de/2000/2000_03_Erschlie01.pdf)

Funding organisation: Förderfonds Chemie, Bundesagentur für Arbeit
Running time: 1999 – 2002

Project description:

This project was carried out by the University and State Library in cooperation with the Bitterfeld Environmental Library. Maps of the region of today’s federal states of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony were digitised and made researchable via the OPAC.

Funding organisation: State of Saxony-Anhalt    

Funding level: Physical resources

Running time: 1998 – 1999

Project description:

Within the scope of the project, around 4.8 million catalogue cards were digitised. As an image of the originals, they are visible on the internet according to the order of the catalogues, on the one hand alphabetically record the ULB’s holdings back to 1930, and on the other hand record university publications back to 1800. Using the scanned keyword catalogue, it is possible to search for ULB literature by subject for the publication years between 1945 and 1990. The request component implemented in these image catalogues allows the literature found to be directly ordered.
The realisation of the project crucially improves the catalogue and request situation at the ULB.

Supplementary information and publications:  

• Access to the digitised card catalogues of the ULB Saxony-Anhalt: http://zkat.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/start.aspx

Articles:

• Gerald Lutze, Heiner Schnelling, Reinhard Worch: Zettels Traum: Digitalisierung von Zettelkatalogen in der ULB Sachsen-Anhalt und ihre Visualisierung im Internet, in : Bibliotheksdienst 33 (1999) 5, 785-796