Abstract |
Periodicals and newspapers are characterized by providing continuing and prompt services. The critical challenges facing a library in serial collections include the difficulty in claiming, unsatisfactory paper quality, limited storage space and the damages on high usage. The user statistics of the National Central Library (NCL) shows that most of the library patrons are college and graduate school students who use periodicals and newspapers frequently. Thus periodicals and newspapers have always been highly used in the NCL. The damage of serially issued materials caused by frequently copying, aging and acidification forces the NCL to take long-term preservation of periodicals and newspapers into serious consideration.
The NCL started digitization of serial collection since 1996 but saw limited results due to budget problem. In 2001 the Library launched the "Periodical and Newspaper Digital Archive Project" (NDAP) to participate in the "National Digital Archives Program" sponsored by the National Science Council. With continuing financial support from NDAP, the NCL has made enormous achievements in serial materials digital archiving. This article is to describe the NCL's experiences in periodical and newspaper digitization including planning, strategies, digitization processes and issues related to further application of digital archives.
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