A presentation detailing the digitization of the Bulgarian News Agency’s (BTA) extensive historical archives was given at the 40th Media Innovation Network (MINDS) conference in Vienna on Thursday. The 40th MINDS conference, held from April 22 to 24, focused on leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced tools to maintain reliable, accessible, and sustainable information bases. The BTA’s collection encompasses over 125 years of history, including millions of pages of news bulletins and hundreds of thousands of photographs documenting significant national and international events.
At the forum, BTA representatives, including Director General Kiril Valchev, presented the project to digitize these vast materials. This digitization effort is part of a Ministry of Culture initiative supporting the preservation of museum, library, and audiovisual funds, which BTA joined in 2021 under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The BGN 4 million project commenced in July 2023 and is scheduled to continue until June 2026.
During the presentation, the team detailed the challenges encountered, such as digitizing content written in old Bulgarian orthography, handling severely damaged pages, and managing inconsistent photo quality and metadata. To illustrate the process, the team presented the digitization of BTA’s first news bulletin from 1898, which covered topics ranging from royal health to Balkan stock markets. To date, 37 specialists have digitized 4.4 million pages out of 5.3 million and 644,000 images out of 1.8 million from the 1898-2012 period, achieving key project objectives.
The resulting digital records improve public accessibility, preserve cultural heritage, and facilitate faster retrieval of information. Furthermore, BTA proposed establishing a BTA Institute in Vienna, intended to collaborate with 15 Bulgarian AI organizations to develop freely accessible media products.
Topics: #archives #minds #conference
