- Initial batch of 3,000 handwritten works to be digitalised by 2018 -
Tokyo and Rome, March 20, 2014 - NTT DATA Corporation, a global IT solutions provider, today announced it was selected to contribute to the project of digitally archiving manuscripts of the Vatican Apostolic Library. The overall project, which was started by the Vatican Apostolic Library some years ago and is currently ongoing with an initial output of 6,000 manuscripts, is intended to digitally archive all manuscripts preserved in the Library, amounting to some 82,000 specimens and 41 million pages.
The Vatican Apostolic Library selected NTT DATA as its partner for this project based on its favourable evaluation of the company’s track record in digital archiving, as exemplified by its work at Japan’s National Diet Library, and its technological expertise and resources, including its digital archive service AMLADTM.
NTT DATA agreed to participate after spending several months extensively reviewing the overall project, including the basic parameters as well as technical and structural aspects. The company has verified that it can assimilate and optimise the systems of the Vatican Apostolic Library, and apply the methodology as a model for other projects involving the long-term preservation of digitally reproduced images.
NTT DATA will enhance current processes and developed materials by contributing a range of key services, including archiving digital manuscripts as high-definition data, supported with special measures for long-term storage and safekeeping. This will include use of a highly sustainable storage format, metadata management to increase search efficiency, optimised search algorithms and a user-friendly search interface.
The initial collaboration between the Vatican Apostolic Library and NTT DATA, worth approximately EUR 18 million (USD 22.6 million or JYP 2.3 billion), will cover about 3,000 documents over a four-year period. The project is of paramount importance for the preservation and dissemination of knowledge in the service of culture throughout the world.
“We are delighted to take part in this historic initiative led by the Vatican Apostolic Library to preserve valuable treasures of humankind,” said Toshio Iwamoto, President and CEO of NTT DATA. “Through this project, NTT DATA looks forward to contributing to art, academia and business by deploying its IT expertise on a global level.”
“We gladly accepted the collaboration of NTT DATA to support the further improvement of the project of digital archiving of our manuscripts using their innovative technologies,” explained Monsignor Cesare Pasini, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library. “In so doing, we will further nurture our mission of preserving these treasures of humankind and making them more widely available and known in a deep spirit of universality-including the universality of knowledge and the universality of collaboration and agreement with institutions and companies throughout the world.”
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