The archive of Prague's heritage preservation will be digitized this year

Prague - The Department of Culture, Heritage Care and Tourism of the capital city of Prague expects to complete the project of digitizing its professional database by the end of this year. By scanning documents, the department aims to convert the building technical documentation of Prague's houses, photographic documentation, maps, and records of administrative proceedings into electronic form. This was announced to journalists in a press release by the councilor for culture and heritage, Milan Richter (ODS).
    "We are adapting to the trend of digitization of administrative agendas, which is common in global metropolises; we are currently in the stage of considering how to make this accessible to the public," said Richter. So far, his department has converted nearly 1.5 million documents into digital form, costing about two million crowns.
    The first phase of digitization took place in the first quarter of 2005. The second phase began in December 2006. "The project is expected to finish by the end of this year," Richter informed. He explained that in the scanned documents, professional referents will be able to search for the necessary archival documents, for example, by cadastral area and descriptive and parcel numbers. "This direct access will significantly streamline their work, saving time and additional costs," stated Richter.
    As of today, a total of 727,215 documents in A0 and A2 format have been scanned. Approximately 700,000 documents in A3 and A4 format have been scanned. According to Richter, the archive of the department is already in electronic form for the years 1991 to 1993, 1997 to 2001, along with all available building technical surveys of objects, known as passports, totaling about two thousand. The scanned documents are stored on DVD discs.