The Poznań Foundation of Scientific Libraries presentation at "Succeed in Digitisation. Spreading Excellence" Conference. Validation and take-up of text digitisation tools.

1. The Poznań Foundation of Scientific Libraries
Mirosław Górny, Rafał Lewandowski

2. The Poznań Foundation of Scientific Libraries
•The Poznań Foundation of Scientific Libraries was created in 1996 on the initiative of the Rectors of state universities and colleges of Poznań.
•In its early years, the Foundation focused its efforts on the computerization of Poznań's scientific libraries.
•In 2001, on the initiative of the Poznań academic community, the Foundation commenced work on the Wielkopolska Digital Library.
•Wielkopolska Digital Library is collecting and sharing through the Internet the literary achievements of Wielkopolska in a digitized form.
•Digital Library of Wielkopolska, holds approximately 240,000 publications, and since 2004 has recorded around 38 million visits.

3. Use Case and Tools
In our test we have used three programs:
ImageMagick:
•This program was used to convert the initial TIFF files to JPG format in order to reduce the sizes of the files undergoing further conversion (to DjVu and PDF).
•Offers a much greater number of functions than just conversion to JPG format.
•Program did not provide the benefits expected.
Scan Tailor:
•Conversion using Scan Tailor improves the visual quality of the files.
•The program will be used in the production process of digitization and publication.

4. Use Case and Tools
JHOVE:
In our tests, the program was used for:
•Checking compliance of the input files with the TIFF format.
•Checking the values of selected fields (tags).
•Reporting deviations from accepted values. In spite of the long time required for processing, the program will be used in the production process of digitization and publication

5. Evaluation Results
Visual evaluation of output files:
•There were not found to be any noticeable differences in the visual quality of the files obtained after conversion to DJVU and PDF formats.
•The sizes of the DjVu and PDF output files are comparable, the DjVu files being significantly smaller.
•The conversion of TIFF source files using Scan Tailor and ImageMagick eliminates any errors in the source files which may prevent further processing.
•Conversion using Scan Tailor improves the visual quality of files.
•It is beneficial to convert TIF source files using Scan Tailor prior to conversion to DJVU and PDF.
•The ImageMagick program did not come up to expectations.

6. Evaluation Results
Conclusions:
•The librarian requires no special training beyond that which is required for the everyday work of a scanner operator and editor in a digital library.
•Each of the programs was easy to install, configure, and integrate with the system currently used.
•The test results indicate that processing time is increased significantly when the source files are checked using JHOVE2.
Programs for the production process of digitization and publication:
JHOVE2 and Scan Tailor.
ImageMagick did not meet our expectations.