SER and AIT set new standards in the digital preservation of Austria’s cultural heritage

SER and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria’s largest non-university research institution, have entered into a strategic research partnership. The Digital Safety & Security Department at AIT is renowned for its research and technology expertise in the fields of digital preservation and online data management. This joint research and development partnership positions SER and AIT as leading solution providers for future information management systems characterised by multimedia information, huge quantities of data and complex processes.

“By archiving the entire digital content of the Austrian National Library using Doxis4 architecture, SER will become the guardian of Austria’s cultural heritage. SER has been a specialist in digital preservation for over 30 years. The German Federal Archives have also been using SER software for its ‘digital memory’ since 2008. In its Vision 2025, the Austrian National Library has set itself the goal of playing a key role in shaping tomorrow’s knowledge society. It is responding to the challenge of developing from a traditional 20^th century library for scholars into a 21^st century open knowledge centre. SER is delighted to be playing a part in making this vision reality, ensuring that data is preserved over the long term and is available to coming generations,” explains Hartmut Gailer, Managing Director of SER in Austria.

“AIT needs to cooperate with capable Austrian industrial partners such as SER to be able to turn its scientific excellence and leading international high-tech developments into real products which successfully position Austria as a global industrial location,” says Helmut Leopold, Head of the Digital Safety & Security Department at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology.

Data and information are becoming the most important commodities in our modern, global information society. New business models will be created by processing and analysing large quantities of data. Companies need secure data storage to successfully operate and continually improve their business processes over the long term. In order to be fit for the future, our health care system, modern administration and production processes (Industry 4.0), digital media and the preservation of our digital heritage all require new tools and solutions. Our information society produces vast quantities of data and this, in turn, faces us with ever greater challenges. Storage, search, retrieval – ongoing data management and archiving over very long periods of time demands new approaches and solutions for handling the wide variety and large quantity of data. SER and AIT have entered into a strategic partnership designed to meet this constantly growing need, providing customised solutions for new emerging markets.

New technologies for managing the online flood of information

In one such project, for example, experts at AIT are developing a new open source search engine designed to network European national libraries, enable shared (interdisciplinary) and collaborative work, and support searches of huge data volumes. A special application created as part of the EU’s Pelagios project can be used to digitise documents as well as to systematically describe antique maps, drawings and photographs using crowdsourcing. Every day up to 2,000 new entries are submitted by an active global online community. “There’s still plenty of hidden data. The more open research is, the more it will benefit,” says Ross King, Head of the Next Generation Content Management Systems research group at AIT.

The SER Group as a cooperative partner

SER has been setting standards in the development of enterprise content management software (ECM) for 30 years. Based in Germany, the SER Group is now present at 20 locations worldwide. The Group has operated successfully in Austria for over 16 years with offices in 3 locations.