The Digital Collection of the Historical Archive
During previous years the HA has focused on the digitization and electronic management of this massive archival material, aiming to preserve information from the old paper archives, in order to provide historical research with the advantages of technology, regarding classification of documents, accessing and processing information. The completeness of the material offers a valuable resource for the study of modern Greek history. The researcher may find documents on the history of the largest and oldest university institution in the country and for the social, economic, scientific, institutional and cultural history of modern Greece.
The digitization of the collection began in 1999 and continued supported by the 3rd Community Support Framework, under the supervision of the Information Society (the Greek managing authority of the European Union operational program), as an action of Measure 1.3 (Documentation, Management and Promotion of Greek Cultural Heritage, Call Number: 65), under the title “Digital Collection of the Historical Archive”- Scientific Supervisor: Prof. M. Dermitzakis. The HA participated in this project in collaboration with the Libraries Computer Center of NKUA, from the beginnings of 2005. Within this framework the HA has been equipped with the necessary technological infrastructure for digitization (Computers and photographic systems).
The outcome of this project is the digitization of 475.000 pages of different kinds and themes. Along with the digitizing process run the project of organizing the information by creating a specified cataloguing system, with itemized descriptions and entries for the documents. The criteria for selecting the documents to be digitized were the physical condition of the material, the significance of the theme and the ability to form complete units.
The priority was given to book-bound manuscripts, unbound documents, printed pages and photographic material.
The final form of the Digital Collection includes:
- Archives of the Senate Secretariat (1837-1983)
Proceedings of the Meetings of the Senate (1837-1983).
Proceedings of the Meetings of the Senate committees (1967-1983).
Book of Board Elections (1837-1959).
Archive with Registry documents (1837-1954)
- Archives of the Faculty of Philosophy (1838-1964)
Proceedings of the meetings of the School of Philosophy (1838-1964)
- Archives of the Faculty of Law (1837-1970)
Proceedings of the meetings of the Faculty of Law (1866-1970)
- Archives of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics (1896-1980)
Proceedings of the meetings of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics (1896-1980)
- Archives of the Faculty of Theology (1857-1967)
Proceedings of the Meetings of the Faculty of Theology (1857-1967)
- Archives of the Faculty of Medicine (1851-1982)
Proceedings of the Meetings of the Faculty of Medicine, volumes 1-44 (1851-1982)
- Photographic Archive (Archives of University Public Etiquette) (1961-1996)
Photographs from cultural events organized by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
- Publications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Yearbooks, Centenary books, Philosophy, poetry, literature competitions.
The digital collection of the HA is part of the digital library system Pergamos since December 2006. Access is permitted to documents produced during the time period from the foundation of the University in1837 until the end of 1932, which is the limit for the opening of archives according to legal restrictions. Public display of archival material is allowed after thirty years, for files and documents and seventy-five years, for information concerning individuals. Material produced after 1932, which will not be displayed at Pergamos, may be accessed, for research and study purposes, through the HA under specific regulations. A concise catalogue of the complete collection of HA is available for downloading at:
The Historical Archive’s primary aim for the future is to accelerate the procedure and complete the project of digitization for the entire collection.
Pergamos Digital Library System
In the concept of digital collections development, LCC implements its main strategic goal: to host all collections in an integrated digital library system and manage their material in a uniform, yet flexible and adaptive manner. This choice offers effective collection management capabilities through treating each collection as a constituent component of a central Digital Library, providing at the same time significant guarantees for long-term preservation and prominence of collection material.
Following these baselines, LCC has incorporated HA’s digital collection into Pergamos. Pergamos, developed by the LCC team, is an integrated Digital Library System, which offers a platform for the preservation, documentation, cataloguing, management and prominence of various and heterogeneous digital collections. Until the end of 2007, Pergamos will host eleven (11) digital collections of the University of Athens.
In the concept of this project, LCC customized Pergamos system, in order to host and support HA’s digital collection and developed appropriate software modules to fulfill the collection’s particular requirements regarding cataloguing and presentation.
Pergamos most significant characteristics are:
- Support of hierarchical collections and sub-collections, which is a very important characteristic regarding the representation of the hierarchical structure of HA’s collection.
- Integrated management of digital objects: easy to use web interfaces for cataloguing, automated procedures for uploading digital content, homogeneous presentation and navigation on the content of digital objects.
- Use of Dublin Core and Electronic Archival Description (EAD) metadata standards for object description, extended by qualifiers and mappings for each type of object. Support of open standards reassures collection’s long-term preservation and compatibility with other systems.
- Support of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), allowing Pergamos to act as a data provider, offering metadata from its collections, using the Dublin Core set.
Pergamos infrastructure allows any future expansion of the HA's digital collection.