"Od drzeworytu do fotolitografii. Zabytki „czarnej sztuki” i albumy w zbiorach Biblioteki UŁ" [From woodcut to photolithography. Monuments of "black art" and albums in the collections of the University of Lodz Library]
As part of the project the most valuable old prints and albums published between 1579 and 1945 (200 titles) with exceptional graphic design and various techniques (graphic, printing and photographic) have been selected.
This is a unique and thematically diverse collection (anatomical, botanical, tourist, architectural publications, with genre and symbolic scenes, portraits, museum catalogues, decorative and fashion templates and the so-called varia), presenting various artistic techniques, from the oldest to the contemporary ones.
The unique exhibits in the collection include: "Todten-Tantz..." – a work with plates illustrating the dance of death; "Plantae selectae..." by Christoph Jakob Trew (1750–1751) – a two-volume botanical album full of exotic plants; "Album widoków Wołynia" [Album of views of Volhynia] by Henryk Peyer – a unique copy available in only a few copies in Poland; An account of James Cook's voyages.
Activities undertaken as part of the project (fumigation, bibliographic preparation, digitisation of selected objects and their publication in the University of Lodz Digital Library) will serve to archive and secure documents and popularise them, and thus also to protect cultural heritage. The project will make it easier for researchers to access a rich body of work, and for art enthusiasts to more fully explore previously inaccessible works.
"DIGITUS INDEX. Inwentarz rękopisów Biblioteki Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego" [DIGITUS INDEX. Manuscript Inventory of the University of Lodz Library]
DIGITUS INDEX [i.e. ‘index finger’] – this is the name that will be given to the new University of Lodz Library platform, which will contain descriptions of the library's historic and contemporary manuscript collections (1,000 inventory units).
The aim of the project is to develop and disseminate unique manuscript collections gathered in the University of Lodz Library, of significant importance for science and cultural heritage on a national and European scale: medieval monuments, memoirs, royal documents and letters, as well as later collections: 19th-century family archives, correspondence, legacies of scientists and writers.
Each document will receive its own online metric, which will include the following information: author, title, place and year of creation, physical description and characteristics of the document's content (notes on the content, dedications, ownership notes, decorations, drawings, stamps, etc.). The platform will enable content searches according to individual criteria (indexes), as well as downloading data in a PDF format.
An important element increasing the scientific value of the description will be its networking in the form of a link to the digitised version at the University of Lodz Digital Library (if it has one). The service will use open-source software versions; its design and functionalities will enable the entry and editing of data by a team of librarians (updating and adding content, expanding the site in the coming years).
The DIGITUS INDEX platform will allow access to unique sources, unknown documents, and thus to discover new research topics. It will be available not only to the academic community of the University of Lodz, but also to scientists from other Polish and foreign research centres.
"Digitalizacja i udostępnienie kolekcji cennych dysertacji doktorskich z nauk humanistycznych" [Digitisation and sharing a collection of valuable doctoral dissertations in the humanities]
The project objective is to preserve, digitise and make approximately 700 doctoral dissertations in the field of humanities defended at the University of Lodz until 2010 available in the Repository of the University of Lodz.
The resource included in the project includes doctoral dissertations in the field of humanities, including dissertations in philosophy, history and theory of literature, linguistics and dialectology, and pedagogy. Their authors are scientists who are still active today, researchers recognized abroad, winners of international grants and awards.
These works constitute a valuable source of information for researchers and students, and the visibility of doctoral dissertations on the Internet will significantly increase interest in the valuable works collected at the University of Lodz Library.
As part of the project, doctoral dissertations will be provided with a set of metadata (available online under the CC BY license) in the international Dublin Core standard, which is integrated with other scientific databases and search engines.