Palma’s Can Sales Public Library has strengthened its preservation programme with the installation of a new high-resolution scanner and a dedicated digitisation area designed to protect and provide wider access to its valuable bibliographic collections. The new facilities will enable historical documents to be preserved in digital format while making them more easily available to the public, researchers and professionals.
The library safeguards one of the Balearic Islands’ most significant heritage collections, comprising a substantial number of printed monographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, together with an extensive historical newspaper and magazine archive containing 115 newspaper titles and 2,072 periodicals. The creation of a specialised digitisation workspace represents an important step towards ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of these collections.
The newly installed overhead scanner has been specifically designed for heritage documentation, allowing books and documents of up to DIN A2 size to be digitised at resolutions of up to 600 dpi. The equipment can accurately reproduce printed texts, photographs, illustrations, maps and other graphic materials while protecting the physical condition of the original items throughout the scanning process.
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Can Sales Library acquires a new scanner to digitise the bibliographic heritage of the Balearic Islands
Its low-intensity lighting system operates without ultraviolet or infrared emissions, significantly reducing exposure to heat and light during digitisation. Adjustable supports also enable fragile volumes and bound materials to be scanned safely without placing unnecessary stress on their bindings.
The digitisation platform includes advanced image-processing software with automatic calibration, distortion correction, optical character recognition (OCR) and metadata generation, improving productivity while enhancing the organisation, searchability and long-term management of the digital archive.
The new facilities will allow the library to respond more efficiently to requests for high-resolution reproductions while resuming the continuous digitisation of its heritage collections. Initial priorities include historical newspapers and magazines preserved on microfilm and microfiche, together with public domain publications already partially digitised.
Future phases of the programme will progressively include works published in the Balearic Islands, publications by Balearic authors, Lullian collections, incunabula, rare printed works and unpublished manuscripts. This initiative will strengthen the preservation of the islands’ documentary heritage while expanding online access for citizens, researchers and cultural institutions.