Since 2003, the University of Bologna has provided qualified personnel and the technological infrastructure for the collection, conservation and dissemination of the University's digital cultural heritage through the institutional digital library, AMS Historica.

The service is dedicated to digitization projects of works of art, monuments, archaeological findings, manuscripts, papyri, books, magazines, newspapers, maps, drawings, photographs, archival materials, audio and video sources, and any other work of artistic or historical, archaeological, ethno-anthropological, archival and bibliographic interest.

The digitized materials may be part of the collections preserved in the libraries, museums and archives of the University, or resulting from national and international research projects.

 

AMS Historica, in line with the University Policy on digital cultural heritage and FAIR and CARE principles, guarantees compliance with national and international guidelines and standards that favor the conservation over time and the valorization of digitized objects.

AMS Historica, in accordance with the National Digitization Plan, implements an open source platform – DSpace GLAM – which integrates DSpace technology with the ecosystem of digital services based on the IIIF protocol, offering innovative and powerful features for the consultation and study of heterogeneous digital content.

The acronym GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums ) underlines the ability to welcome and manage different types of cultural heritage.

The digitized works are published under open licenses that encourage their discovery, study, sharing and reuse, according to the principles of Open Science.

The licenses for use and the service delivery mode are described on the Terms of use page.

 

AlmaDL offers support for:

  • library analysis and technical specifications for digital acquisition, including a template for tender specifications for service outsourcing
  • data management plan
  • metadata
  • processing and management of digital objects (images, audio, video)
  • archiving of images in original format and long-term preservation
  • online publication in AMS Historica
  • legal issues, including templates for requesting digitization and publication permissions
  • hyperlink to the SBN-UBO online catalogue
  • online dissemination through indexing by search engines, international catalogues and thematic portals (e.g. Europeana, OpenAIRE, WorldCat and BASE).

 

How to sign up for the service:

To learn about the conditions of the deposit and publication service for a digital collection in AMS Historica, the Service Charter [.pdf 225 KB] is available.

In particular, the content provider – a researcher and/or a University structure – undertakes to:

  • obtain preliminary approval from the Scientific Steering Committee of the relevant disciplinary library;
  • digitize the originals and manage and create metadata for the digital reproductions in accordance with the Technical Guidelines provided by the Service;
  • comply with the deadlines indicated for the submission and acceptance of requests in order to allow proper planning of the Service’s activities;
  • agree with the Staff on the methods and timelines for depositing the files and related metadata, bearing any costs related to platform customization.

 

The request acceptance process consists of the following stages:

 

  1. a preliminary meeting with AlmaDL staff, arranged by contacting the helpdesk;
  2. submission by 30 April of the project approved by the Scientific Steering Committee of the relevant library, including the Data Management Plan (Annex 1 of the Publication Request Form);
  3. acceptance by 20 July of the cost estimate for any expenses and signing of the Publication Request Form (choosing one of the models listed below):

 

All documentation must be sent to the email address .

The requests received will be communicated to the Scientific Steering Committee of the University Library System (SBA), which may indicate an order of priority.

The content provider is responsible for independently obtaining the appropriate authorization for publication from any authors or rights holders of the works included in the digitized collection.