The project

More imprints have already been digitized in Germany than many users realize. In April 2005 the German Research Foundation began funding the establishment of a portal which will improve access to these holdings: The Central Index of Digitized Imprints (zvdd) can be found at http://www.zvdd.de. The project partners are the AG Sammlung Deutscher Drucke (SDD), the Verbundzentrale des Gemeinsamen Bibliotheksverbundes (VZG) and the Hochschulbibliothekszentrum (hbz). Scattered, free digital material stemming from a variety of research projects will be collected and standardized. The goal is to provide fast and central access to digital collections, both to titles and single pages as well as to full texts.

The portal

In a first step the portal offers access to many thousand digitized imprints, searchable at title level. In a second step search facilities will be extended to structural data such as chapters, captions, illustrations or other relevant pages. The search via full text is in preparation. As well as single-title searches, searches can be made for complete collections, such as collections of historical childrens’ books, emblem books, Sibirica or of civil and criminal law books of the 19th century. Users can search by title or author keywords or subject headings. Systematic access will be provided via DDC classifications. Browsing options facilitate finding persons, locations, books of particular centuries or media types. Searches can be conducted by choosing the VZG user interface or the hbz user interface. This feature is an easier way of starting for many users as it allows them to work with a familiar environment. The underlying database is the same in either case. From the portal the user is guided to the digital local collections. The provenance of a record will be marked in display.

The perspective

zvdd will provide the basis for a national portal providing a general index of all scholarly relevant digitized resources dating from the beginning of printing to the 21st century. The aim is to provide comprehensive access to all digital source materials in Germany. In connection with other international portals zvdd is designed to play a crucial role in providing access to relevant source materials both to researchers and the broader public at any time and from any place. The portal is not only an important component in creating new scholarly environments in an ever growing internet community, it also will serve as a central index necessary to the German libraries facing the challenge of digitizing large portions of our cultural heritage. Simultaneously the portal can be regarded as a further step towards the democratization of access to our historical source materials. Thus zvdd serves both the highly specialized scientific community and the broader public in Germany - and in the wide world of the internet.