Danish local history archive now available on Europeana, Europe's National Heritage database

UK company provides Axiell Calm to take Danish local history to Europe. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) June 08, 2011 - Fascinating 100 year-old newspapers, images, music and ephemera from Roskilde in Denmark are now available worldwide thanks to their inclusion in the European cultural database Europeana. The online database brings together material from 27 countries and already includes 15 million records which can be searched simultaneously.

Roskilde is the 12th biggest region in Denmark with 80,000+ inhabitants on the island of Zealand. Roskilde Local History Archive uses Axiell's Calm collection management technology which makes it possible to display its cultural history on the web. Renowned for its large image collection, Roskilde has made over 6000 images available to Europeana through data harvesting from Calm, with subsequent additions to come. This will ensure that the area's cultural history is available easily not only to local inhabitants but to anyone across Europe and beyond via www.europeana.eu. Over 250 other documents about Roskilde such as newspaper clippings and caricatures are also available in Europeana along with a number of videos.

Mogens Vestergaard, Library Manager at Roskilde Libraries, says, "We want to give users easier and better access to all our historical knowledge. There is a great interest from local citizens but also from people elsewhere in the country and further afield. Digitising parts of the local archive's vast collection serves not just a national objective but also an international one."

Roskilde has named its version of Calm Roskildiana. Roskildiana contains mostly local historical pictures from Roskilde including some of photographer Kristian Hude's famous images from the early 1900s. There are photos from daily life as well as celebrations including weddings and golden wedding anniversaries. Newspaper clippings from bygone times provide further text and pictures illustrating life in the era.

Malcolm Howitt, Axiell Business Manager for Calm, adds, "Axiell's Calm collection management system helps the community by keeping its history alive. A great part of the cultural history of the region that was previously inaccessible to large parts of the community (due to lack of space to show it) is being digitised and made alive and relevant again via the internet.

"Calm allows Europeana to harvest data from the Roskilde Local History Archive through the OAI-PMH standard which is embedded in Calm. This means that an OAI harvester automatically picks up data from the archive and takes it to enrich the European heritage database."

Calm can handle over 50 different file formats and present them in a single database, making it easy to upload and display a wide variety of multimedia content in one go.

Roskildiana: www.rosa.roskildebib.dk/calmview

Axiell UK
Axiell UK provides library software solutions to one third of local authorities in the UK, while over 400 customers use Calm, the system of choice for Archives, Museums and Records Offices. The company is a leading business solutions supplier to libraries, archives, museums and records centres.

Axiell UK offers its customers both software and hardware and a full range of implementation, facilities management and integration services, and the company continues to be a pioneer in software development for libraries.
Axiell is a member of Axiell Group AB.
http://www.axiell.co.uk/

Axiell Group AB
Axiell Group is the world's fifth largest company in the sector, supplying IT systems and services dedicated solely to libraries, archives and museums as a target group and with its focus on library development.

Axiell develops technically advanced and innovative solutions in close cooperation with its customers. More than 1000 library organisations with thousands of branches in the Nordic countries and in the UK use Axiell's library management systems and Axiell Arena, the tool for the virtual library. The system for archives and museums, Axiell Calm is used by over 400 archives and museums in Europe.

Axiell Group is a group company with five subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark and Finland as well as the UK.
www.axiell.com

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