From an initial question to an inventory and a digital document: 2dA shares a first application of the platform our team is developing. In the video, Mila explores a virtual reading room built around archival sources.
Research does not always start with an inventory number. It may begin with a question, a name or a hunch. In the concept demonstration, Mila shows how a research question guides the reading room, how connections between sources become visible, and how a visitor moves from a collection entry to an inventory and a digital document.
The demonstration also shows how a Scanning on Demand request can be prepared for a record that is not digitally available. The archive then determines whether digitisation is possible. Preparing a request does not guarantee that a record can be supplied.
The visitor experience brings together many aspects of 2dA’s daily work: mass digitisation, Scanning on Demand, text recognition, data structuring and storage. We also develop AI models and applications to support searching and understanding information, with archival sources as their foundation.
The virtual reading room is one application within a platform under development. This concept demonstration uses data from public APIs and is not an official service of an archival institution. Our aim is to offer institutions additional ways to make their collections accessible and understandable, suited to their visitors and requirements. We welcome ideas and opportunities to collaborate.