Ms Gömpel, you are quoted as saying, "We have digitised more this year than in any year before!" How much was digitised in 2023, and in which areas?

We are pleased to say that last year's digitisation activities spanned a very wi-de compass. We digitised over 5.7 million pages from more than 62,000 ana-logue works, over 4,000 compact cassettes and approximately 1,6 million tab-les of contents. We were able to systematically convert large parts of our hol-dings into digital format, beginning with the first book – in other words, we started from the very first meters of shelving, which date from 1913 in Leipzig and 1945 in Frankfurt am Main. Estates held by the German Exile Archive 1933–1945, book trade circulars and the historical collections of the German Museum of Books and Writing were also digitised. For academic and research purposes, we digitised our exile journals and part of our collection of dime no-vels, i.e. kiosk literature which was never usually collected by any other library.

What percentage of works has now been digitised overall?

In relation to the DNB's overall holdings, the percentage of works that has be-en digitised is merely a drop in the ocean – we have been able to digitise between 1 and 2% of our analogue holdings so far. However, if you look at in-dividual segments, the digitisation rate is very high. In 2023, we were able to finish digitising all our compact cassettes – of which there are over 56,000. The same applies to the books in the exile collections and some parts of the collections held by the German Museum of Books and Writing.

What does "catalogue enrichment" mean – and what goals have you achieved in this respect?

We scan the tables of contents of all the books we receive every day. The tab-les of contents can be used through the DNB's catalogue and are useful when researching and selecting literature since they can be searched using the full-text search function. This is a national service which allows other libraries to import the scanned tables of contents for their own purposes. We also work on our historical collections and digitise tables of contents retrospectively. We ha-ve almost concluded our major project of scanning the tables of contents of all the books held in the stacks in Frankfurt. Users will soon have access to more than 5 million tables of contents rather than the 2.7 million available at present.

Can 2023 be seen as a blueprint for future digitisation efforts?

Yes, definitely. However, these endeavours depend on the provision of adequate resources, i.e. staff and funding. Between 2021 and 2024, our fi-nancial options have been and will be supplemented by special funding provi-ded by the Minister of State for Culture and Media to support our digitisation measures. This is a great help when it comes to placing a digital layer over our holdings. The German National Library's regular budget does not yet contain a separate category for digitisation.

Which criteria are used to decide what will be digitised next?

You need to be aware that digitisation serves a variety of purposes. Firstly, it is a means of information assurance and a way to protect the texts, images and audio files stored in Germany's collected cultural memory. In other words, works are always digitised if the material used to make them is severely dama-ged or at risk and other conservation measures are not economically and/or technically viable. Secondly, digitisation aims to improve visibility, access and the possibilities of use available to the scientific, research, educational and cul-tural communities and the interested public in Germany and abroad.

The DNB has also made the digitisation of its holdings an integral part of its strategy.

Yes, the DNB has been pursuing the goal of making our analogue collections fully accessible in digital format since 2021. The digitisation measures, which until now have been mainly selective, are therefore being systematically ex-panded step by step at both locations. The goal: to place a digital layer over the analogue holdings. To come back to your question: our digitisation mea-sures are prioritised according to a balance of all these strategic principles.

The quarantine rooms were heavily used in 2023 – almost 700 removal boxes had to be quarantined in all. What happens to the items kept there?

Items which are acquired retrospectively or suspected of harbouring pests or microbes are kept separately in the quarantine room to prevent other areas from becoming contaminated. The holdings concerned are left in the quaranti-ne room for about 6 weeks so we can find out if they have been infested by insects. We also set traps in and around the holdings and evaluate the results. If a collection is infested, it is treated by a service provider as required. Smaller quantities can be treated by the collection preservation department itself.

What kind of treatment do they receive?

In principle, we try to avoid using toxins and usually employ anoxic methods instead. Mouldy objects are cleaned under a so-called "clean workbench". This is an occupational health and safety measure which prevents staff from brea-thing in the spores. Larger groups of items are cleaned by service providers since the collection preservation department does not have the capacity to deal with them. Once the items are "clean", they are sent to the respective depart-ment for further processing and can then be returned to the stacks.

Apropos stacks: in 2023, the repository mapping app "Bonpland" also became available for iPad. Who are the app's main users?

At present, the app is mainly used by our collection preservation staff. They use it to record specific parameters which are important when making strategic decisions in the context of measures planning. Our colleagues in the stacks also use the app to record the condition of items as instructed by the collection preservation department. For purposes of digitisation, for example, opening angles and binding stability are assessed so that the items are not damaged during the digitisation process.

What are the app's functions?

In principle, the app has three basic functions. There is a map creation func-tion, since the map serves as the basis for creating and assessing random samples. Another function is the creation of shelving in the map including a definition of the respective media type. Once the map has been created, another function can be used to select a suitable sample with a defined con-fidence interval. The "Record condition" function can then be used to assess the condition of the previously selected random sample. When it comes to re-cording parameters, the app is designed to be as flexible as possible so that an extensive variety of questions can be answered – e.g. whether a specific group of items can be digitised or if cleaning is required. Depending on the question, the DNB can adjust recording parameters such as opening angles before the condition of each item is recorded.

Preserving and digitising the holdings are not ends in themselves – quite the opposite. Both serve the purpose of enabling as many people to use the collections as possible. How does this work with digitised media?

First of all, it must be emphasised that the German National Library attaches the utmost importance to copyright protection. If the material is copyrighted, the digitised versions are only made available in the library's reading rooms. Material which is in the public domain or not protected by copyright can be ac-cessed worldwide. Open-access digital media are also made available through DNBLab as part of our text and data mining services. These works can also be accessed in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library, DDB) and Europeana.

Which digital assets are used intensively?

The digitised tables of contents are used particularly frequently: last year they were accessed more than 4.8 million times, i.e. there were around 13,400 queries a day. However, retrievals of digitised works are also increasing steadily. The more works available in digital format, and the more that become freely accessible worldwide, the more they will be used; this will also guide our endeavours in the years to come.