This document summarizes a project by the Central and State Library Berlin to digitize and provide online access to historic address and telephone directories from 1799-1992 containing over 250 million entries. The project used crowdsourcing to transcribe text from scanned documents and correct optical character recognition errors. Over 500,000 pages were digitized and the resulting database allows for structured searching of the directories. Statistics on crowdsourcing participation and future plans to expand educational resources and engage new user groups are presented.

1. www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
18.06.2014 1
Besuch flämische BibliothekarInnen
18.06.2014
Marion Lais
Elisa Herrmann
Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin
Cultural Heritage and Crowdsourcing

2. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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Project scope
Offer a modern version and provide online access to
historic phones & address directories (approx. 500.000
pages)
∷ Objects:
∷ 128 Address Directories (1799-1943): ca. 50 Mio. entries
∷ 158 Telephone Directories (1936-1992): ca. 200 Mio. entries
∷ Project Period: 10.09.2012-12.04.2013

3. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
18.06.2014Marion Lais 3
Project Goals
Offer a modern version and provide online access to
historic phones & address directories (approx. 500.000
pages)
∷ Photo editing
∷ OCR - text recognition
∷ Create repository with digital objects incl. table of contents
and search functions
∷ User friendly online surface for a structured search
∷ Supporting and enabling a crowdsourcing-function

4. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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Example: Berlin address directory 1850

5. DigiTABBerlin
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Adressbucheinträge in den Rohdaten
OCR-Ergebnisse (l.) und Transkription (r.)
OCR (text recognition)

6. DigiTABBerlin
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∷How crowdsourcing works

7. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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8. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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Crowdsourcing – text correction

9. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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Crowdsourcing – completion of entríes

10. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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Statistics

11. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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User

12. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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After project start up
∷ Adaptation to Corporate Design
∷ Additonal entry fields for „entry completion“
∷ Possibility to insert & delete lines during „text
correction“
∷ Administration area

13. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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User feedback
∷ initial problems with digital search functionalities
∷ a certain degree of getting used to the new system and
the way data is presented  initially high customer
service effort
∷ Many users are passive users, but number of active
users is growing

14. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
18.06.2014Marion Lais 14
Future steps
∷ (Interactive) Tutorial
∷revised reward system
∷ Increased marketing to target groups
∷ Eg. Initiative Stolpersteine Berlin

15. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
18.06.2014Marion Lais 15
Next: Our project 2014
∷ Continue the MakerSpace movement with:
∷ Virtual exhibitions and
∷ Story Telling
∷ fusion of real and virtual space creates new
possibilities to get in touch with new target
groups

16. DigiTABBerlin
www.zlb.dedigitalisierung@zlb.de
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Thank you
Marion Lais
Leiterin Digitale Dienste
lais@zlb.de
digitalisierung@zlb.de
Fon +49 (30) 90226 - 141
pinterest.com/digitabberlin
http:digital.zlb.de
Elisa Herrmann
Crowdsourcing
elisa.herrmann@zlb.de
digitalisierung@zlb.de
Fon +49 (30) 90226 - 316