Wroclaw University Library Turns to IBM Big Data Solution

IBM
Corporation and the Wroclaw
University Library in Poland announced a national scientific project to
preserve and digitize nearly 800,000 pages of distinctive European manuscripts,
books, and maps dating back to the Middle Ages and rarely accessible to the
public until now.

The project, co-founded by the European Union through the European Regional
Development Fund, creates the largest digital archive of medieval manuscripts
and ancient geographical atlases in Poland. It uses a solution consisting of IBM
System x servers and storage disk and SAN solutions to address the big data
challenge of managing and providing fast search and retrieval services for up
to 300TB of information.

"The Wroclaw University Library’s
mission is to protect, preserve and ensure broader access to Polish cultural
heritage," said Adam Zurek, head of the department of scientific documentation
of cultural heritage, Wroclaw University Library. "We selected IBM to help us identify, choose and implement a solution in
line with our goals of digitizing the library’s documents and making them
available to the broader public online. Thanks to the IBM Smarter Computing
solution, our library has enhanced its potential as an educational resource for
students and researchers from Europe and all over the world."

The Wroclaw University Library, founded in 1811, houses unique documents such
as medieval manuscripts and old prints. One of its most valuable treasures is
the Statuta
synodalia episcoporum Wratislaviensium, containing the texts of everyday prayers
printed for the first time in Polish by Kasper Elyan in 1475.

Other precious cultural texts include Legenda major de Beata Hedwigi,
published by Konrad Baumgarten in 1504, and early publications of Martin
Luther, Miguel de Cervantes, and William Shakespeare. The archive also includes
thousands of old printed maps, like the handwritten Portolan Atlas by famed cartographer Battista Agnese.

Until now, these documents were accessible to only a handful number of students
and scientists. Through this digitization project, the Wroclaw University
Library can now provide access to this material to anyone via Internet.

IBM designed an IT platform based on System x 3550 M3 servers, Storwize
V7000 Unified Disk Systems and System Storage SAN24B-4 Express storage
systems. The solution helps collect, preserve, store, manage and index all
types of digital content, including text, images, audio, and video. The IBM
System Storage Easy Tier function automatically and non-disruptively manages
frequently accessed data, eliminating manual intervention when requesting large
volumes of information. This means that readers will be able to quickly open,
view, retrieve and explore library documents online.

"Preserving our ancient cultural documents
is a major project which opens our Polish cultural heritage to the world,"
says Grzegorz Dobranowski, business partner organization director, IBM Poland.
"Thanks to IBM’s Smarter Computing
approach to IT, it will be now easier for the library to collect, manage and
catalog content, ensuring Europe and the world benefit from Poland’s great
cultural heritage."

During the implementation, 1,100 medieval manuscripts were digitized together
with old prints, maps and music. Over 140 documents underwent conservation and
a 360-page album is about to be published.

The system was implemented at the Wroclaw
University Library by ProSystem SA, an IBM Business Partner.