27 February 2024
Literature that is available digitally is essential for science. In order to be able to use this highly volatile information in the long term, it must not only be stored digitally for a long time, but also adapted in a continuous process to technological change and thus to the latest soft- and hardware. To give libraries worldwide an overview of titles for which digital preservation is already being guaranteed or not, and who is responsible for it, the ISSN International Centre keeps a list, the Keepers Registry, integrated into the ISSN-Portal.
The Keepers Registry is a service that provides a public, global preservation registry of significant digital content of digital-born or digitised journals preserved by archival organisations. The Keepers Registry also provides the statistical basis for alerting libraries, publishers and other interested parties about digital material at risk of being lost. The BNE will regularly provide the ISSN International Centre with metadata about its contents in the Digital Periodical and Newspaper Library to be included in Keepers Registry.
The Keepers Registry cooperates with the world’s most important academic libraries which have certified programmes for digital preservation. Among these are the Library of Congress, the National Library of France and the National Library of the Netherlands.
About the BNE
The National Library of Spain is the institution responsible for conserving, increasing and disseminating the Spanish bibliographic and documentary heritage produced in any device or medium, including those published on electronic networks. It houses a rich historical collection and, since the beginning of the 18th century, receives all publications produced in Spain. The library was founded by King Philip V of Spain in 1712 as the Palace Public Library (Biblioteca Pública de Palacio). In 1836, it became the Biblioteca Nacional.
Currently, this bibliographic collection is estimated to comprise more than 35 million items, including books, magazines, newspapers, maps, engravings, drawings, scores, pamphlets, etc.
The Digital Periodical and Newspaper Library (Hemeroteca Digital) is part of the Hispanic Digital Library project, the aim of which is public reference and internet dissemination of the bibliographic heritage held in the Biblioteca Nacional.This digital periodical and newspaper library was created in March 2007 to provide public access to the digital collection of historical Spanish press items housed in the National Library, with an initial collection of 143 newspapers and periodicals. The Digital Newspaper Library now has more than 3,100 titles and 88 million pages, of which 2,476 titles, with 7,698,658 pages, correspond to the historical collection.
This digital collection began with the intention of becoming a reference for research and the consultation of both periodicals and the history of the Spanish press. In addition to enabling the reading and searching of texts, it also provides information about the main digital periodical and newspaper collections, thus providing knowledge and access to the largely unexplored Spanish periodical and newspaper heritage.