Alte Bücher - neue Leser/-innen. Ein Bericht aus der Digitalisierungswerstätte der Oö. Landesbibliothek

The Upper Austrian Federal State Library is located in the Centre of Linz on Commercial Street Road Landstraße. The Library is close to the new music theatre and is and has been working together with them to create an "education area" in the vicinity of the railway station district of Linz. Measured on the number of records in the library, the library has grown to be the tenth-largest collection of books in Austria. As a national Library it is however very close to the heart of Austria and it holds many collections from and about Upper Austria within it ("Obderennsia"). The library has begun with the introduction of recognised methods to take care of digitalisation and help the development of these copyright-free books. There is no doubt that the digitalisation of books and manuscripts has given a "second life" and has also helped to "raise its profile" and enabled it to work together on an even par with larger Libraries and information providers, sharing their unique collections all over the world. An unexpectedly positive result of the largely "in-house" organized digitalisation process is the development of "Know-How", which has increased the electronic and technological knowledge within the library. This has helped to enable these process to remain “in house” as opposed to "outsourcing" and has helped to build a competent and highly specialised service now offered by the Library