OCR scanning of 839 books from Royal Danish Library's book collection
Read about how a researcher made use of data provided from Royal Danish Library's collections and the Danish Books on Demand service in his research project.
Photo: Bertha Wegman/SMK
““I min brede, kvantitative udforskning af romaner fra ”det moderne gennembrud” i dansk og norsk litteratur har jeg ikke alene nydt godt af Det Kgl. Biblioteks bogsamling, men også af digitaliseringsafdelingens store og gode arbejde med at digitalisere de hundredvis af romaner (kendte, men mest ukendte; high-brow såvel som low-brow). Mens bibliotekets brugere har fået umiddelbar tilgang til alle disse bøger via bibliotekssystemet, har vi i mit forskningsprojekt haft glæde af at kunne udforske kvantitative mønstre og udpege nye interessante enkelttekster i et samlet stort korpus, som bygger på de digitale billeder og (OCR)tekstgenkendelsen, som Det Kgl. Bibliotek har leveret.
More about the project
| Project name | MeMo – Measuring Modernity: Literary and Social Change in Scandinavia 1870-1900 |
|---|---|
| Researcher | Jens Bjerring-Hansen, Associate Professor, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen |
| Publications based on the project | |
| Service from Royal Danish Library | Danish books on demand, where you can order a PDF copy of selected Danish books, printed sheet music or material from the small print collection printed more than 100 years ago. |
| Material from Royal Danish Library | OCR scanning of 839 books from Royal Danish Library's book collection. |
The researcher explains further
The empirical material consisted of all Danish and Norwegian original novels (that is not reprints and translations) printed in book form in Denmark during the period 1870-99. The basis for the collection was first and foremost the Danish Book Register, which the library's collection (almost) completely covers in terms of legal deposit. Aesthetically and sociologically, these many novels provide a diverse picture of the modern breakthrough prose in contrast to the more selective and canonical selection of material in literary histories.
There were well-known names (including Bang, Jacobsen and Hamsun) and advanced -isms (including naturalism and symbolism), but also a rich selection of popular literature (for example, romances and crime novels) and forgotten literary movements (schoolteacher literature, missionary literature and so forth) as well as, for example, what is known to be the first novel in the world with an openly homosexual protagonist (Nina by Otto Martin Møller from 1883).
