Our archives

Partnership & Digitisation

A partnership between the National Archives and the Houses of the Oireachtas Service led to the jointly funded digitisation of DE/2 and DE/4.

The National Archives also received funding from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht’s Culture Division’s digitisation fund.

A contract team including a preservation assistant, scanning operatives and a metadata cataloguer worked on the files in three distinct phases: Conserving, digitising and creating metadata.

Let’s take a closer look at preparing documents for scanning:
To ensure that the text of the files can be clearly read and the documents can be safely handled through the imaging process, the following measures were taken:

 

Surface cleaning the pages with a smoke sponge to remove any loose dust on the paper’s surface
Surface cleaning the pages with a smoke sponge to remove any loose dust on the paper’s surface
Removing metal fasteners (butterfly clips; rusted paper clips and staples) using small tools to ensure that no damage is done to the files
Removing metal fasteners (butterfly clips; rusted paper clips and staples) using small tools to ensure that no damage is done to the files
Removing old adhesive tape, which has caused staining and is covering text, using a metal spatula
Removing old adhesive tape, which has caused staining and is covering text, using a metal spatula
Residues of glue are removed with fine cellulose powder
Residues of glue are removed with fine cellulose powder

 

The pieces are put back together with conservation tissue
The pieces are put back together with conservation tissue

 

 

Final Conservation Statistics:

DE/2 files: 13,923 pages were cleaned, flattened and repaired

DE/4 files: 22,240 pages were cleaned, flattened and repaired