Digitising and cataloguing 7500 glass negatives Digitising and cataloguing 7500 glass negatives

The glass negatives come from various archives, including those of W.H. Gispen, the Bond Nederlandse Architecten, the Academie van Bouwkunst Amsterdam, K.P.C. de Bazel, Jan Wiebenga, P.J.H. Cuypers and B.T. Boeyinga. The collection also includes a large number of photographs by the Rotterdam-based photographer, Gerrit Burg.

Glass negatives are extremely fragile and cannot be consulted without causing damage to them. By digitising these images, there is no longer a need to examine them physically. The collection of glass negatives includes images of Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam, mansions and interiors by K.P.C. de Bazel, the Beurs van Berlage, Hilversum City Hall by W.M. Dudok, the open-air swimming pool in Zwolle by Jan Wiebenga, the construction of De Haar Castle and a series of photographs made for Gispen's product catalogues.

More than 3500 glass negatives have already been tagged with metadata. These are negatives from the archives of Gispen, Cuypers (Amsterdam Central Station and the Rijksmuseum), Boeyinga, Elling, Feltkamp, Lammers, Van Eesteren, Mastenbroek, Crouwel and Bureau Cuypers.

Making the glass negatives accessible is a collaborative process within the Heritage department between a digitiser, archivist, registrar and applications manager. The glass negatives are taken out of the archive, digitised and then packed individually. It is of great importance to keep the negative's original place within the archive.

Archives are catalogued in the ADLIB collections management system. Information in the search portal is a direct translation of the date that has been input in ADLIB. In collaboration with the archivist, the registrar decides how to catalogue the glass negatives within the archive and where to insert them in the tree structure. In some cases the glass negative has not been given the correct inventory number during the digitisation process, for example in the case of a temporary serial number. The registrar keeps track of which inventory numbers have changed. The inventory number determines both the file name of the image and the label on the packaging in the storage registration system. The applications manager links the digitised images to the description.

The level of cataloguing of the glass negatives differs per archive. In some cases glass negatives are described individually while others are described as a cluster. This decision is based on the importance of the archive and the frequency with which it is consulted. Furnishing the glass negatives with a title, short description and keywords increases their accessibility. The registrar takes the information from the archive inventory or relies upon the knowledge of the archivist. Given the large number of glass negatives that need to be made accessible, it is not possible to conduct research into the images they contain. The principle aim is to make the material accessible.

It is expected that the project will be completed in the summer of 2017.