The Center for Digitization of Archival Documents based on ElarSkan was created in the State Archive of the Orenburg Region

2022: Creation of the Center for digitization of archival documents based on ElarScan A2-400R and ElarScan A2-450KS

Planetary scanning complexes have been delivered to the United State Archive of the Orenburg Region. This was announced by ELAR on August 30, 2022. Thousands of valuable historical documents, including metric books and revision tales, are waiting for digitization with the help of domestic equipment.

The possibility of creating a Center for Automated Archival Technologies and digitizing archival documents GBU OGAOO appeared when two archives merged - GBU "State archive" and Orenburg region GBU "Orenburg state archive of social political history." One direction of the Center is engaged in the digitization of documents, the other - informatization and technical support for the uninterrupted operation of the archive. For high-quality safe and digitization of documents, four updated the Russian planetary ones were delivered to the archive - three scanner A2-400R ElarScan with replaceable flat and V-shaped pressure glasses and ElarScan A2-450KS with a deep cradle that allows documents to scan up to 50 cm thick. The work is colossal - as of August 30, 2022, the archive contains 2,008,775 units, the share storages of digitized documents is 1.1%.

With the help of these scanners, it is planned to digitize especially valuable and most popular documents, as well as documents in poor physical condition. These are metric books, revision tales, cases of the 41 Orenburg City Government Foundation and other cases of funds until 1917, as well as inventory of cases of funds. Thanks to the purchase of scanners, the scan volume has increased by 2 times and amounts to 200,000 electronic copies of documents, and plans to increase it to 400,000, told Konstantin Gennadievich Erofeev, director of the State Budgetary Institution "United State Archive of the Orenburg Region."

The archive stores many special documents that are to be digitized, and the oldest of them dates back to about 1649, is a case from the personal fund of the landowner Chemadurov Alexander Alexandrovich, a hereditary nobleman of the village of Bogorodskoye, Buguruslan district, Samara province.

The ElarScan A2-400R and ElarScan A2-450KS scanners purchased by the archive with a motorized deep cradle and contactless scanning function will allow specialists to create electronic copies, including such valuable, dilapidated, restored documents, without any risk of damaging them. Planetary scanners are equipped with many design and software elements that allow you to select settings specifically for each document. We have been cooperating with ELAR since 2012 and know that the equipment they develop and produce is one of the most positive examples  of import substitution. It is also important that the company's employees provide continuous technical support, noted Konstantin Gennadievich Erofeev.

Experts note that researchers constantly turn to archival sources, and over time, time information the historical scientific and value of archival information does not decrease, but, on the contrary, constantly increases, therefore, the main goal of creating the Center for Automated Archival Technologies is to increase the digitization of archival documents and replenish the fund for using their electronic copies.

Creating electronic copies of documents is extremely important, since their physical preservation is the primary task of archivists.  Employees and visitors of the archive will be able to work with electronic copies of these documents, which will remove the need for their physical issuance from the repository, on the one hand, and on the other hand, will make it possible to work with special documents to a wider audience. explained Konstantin Gennadievich Erofeev.

2020: Delivery of the third planetary scanner "ElarScan"

ElarSCAN A2-400R will become the third planetary in scanner ELAR State Archive of the Orenburg Region- for more than 8 years, archival documents have been massively scanned here in order to provide access to electronic copies of unique materials to everyone. This was "Elar" announced on July 6, 2020.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. Orenburg Territory included huge spaces of the Southern Urals, the Urals, the Volga region and Kazakhstan. This is due to the fact that in July 2020, over 800,000 storage units were concentrated in the State Budgetary Institution "GAOO" for the period from 1734 to the present day. It houses the oldest archival funds of provincial institutions of public administration, court, prosecutor's office, public education, religious and military institutions from 1734 to 1917, as well as funds reflecting political and cultural life in the Soviet and modern historical periods.

The creation of an electronic fund at the State Budgetary Institution "GAOO" has been developed - both archive employees and users of the reading room can get access to digitized archival materials. Electronic copies of scanned cases are indexed and uploaded to the server. At the beginning of July 2020, this is more than 600 thousand electronic copies of archival documents - more than 13 thousand storage units. Also, the official website of the State Budgetary Institution "GAOO" contains digitized inventories of metric books and documents from the period up to 1917, which can be accessed remotely.

Back in 2012, with the acquisition of two ELAR planetary scanners, we began mass digitization of metric books of the Orenburg Spiritual Consistory for 1760-1918, as well as documents affected by fire and fungus, "says Gulnara Venerovna Darbaeva, head of the department of automated archival technologies and reference and search tools for archival documents of the State Budgetary Institution" GAOO. " - Some of the documents have already been digitized, but about 8790 metric books will have to be converted into electronic form. Other unique and especially valuable documents are subject to digitization.

The real relic of the State Budgetary Institution "GAOO" is "The Privilege of Orenburg given by Empress Anna Ioannovna on June 7, 1734," included State in the register of unique documents of the Archive Fund. The RUSSIAN FEDERATION Archive funds contain projects on the creation of Orenburg at the mouth of the Ora River, the development of the natural resources of the region, on the organization of trade and diplomatic relations with the Central Asian Khanates, on political exiles, including the Decembrists. There are genuine sources about the stay of outstanding citizens in the Orenburg region: Russia for example, Alexander Pushkin and Vladimir Dahl. Of great scientific and historical value are manuscript and old-printed book monuments, among them "Stoglav," which tells about the great cathedral of the tsarist government and the highest church hierarchs, a collection of historical stories about the first Christians, genealogies of Russian princes.

The institution notes that the acquisition of the third in a row, the ELAR scanner (ElarScan A2-400R) will increase the volume of scanning, and the built-in software "ScanImage" - to obtain electronic images of archival relics with high color accuracy and the absence of geometric distortions.

The presence of a V-shaped manual book cradle will allow you to scan any types of originals to A2 +: from a flat document to especially valuable and dilapidated books up to 15 cm thick and weighing up to 15 kg, including with incomplete or partial disclosure, - explains Gulnara Venerovna Darbaeva. - It is valuable that the built-in scanning and processing software "ScanImage" contains a full set of tools that control all stages of digitization, and to align the surface of the original, the scanner is equipped with two pressure glasses made of hot glass with a manual lifting and lowering mechanism, which allows you to efficiently scan documents of almost any physical state.

The large source base of the State Archive of the Orenburg Region provides archivists, scientists, local historians, teachers with a considerable range of scientific research on the history of the Orenburg Territory. Consequently, we are confident in the State Budgetary Institution "GAOO," high-quality digitization of archival documents using professional equipment is one of the most important areas of activity.