The National Széchényi Library has once again received a significant international appreciation: in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, it successfully applied for the Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant, which is funded by the Conference of European National Librarians.
The National Széchényi Library (NSZL) has once again received a significant international appreciation: in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland, it successfully applied for the Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant, which is funded by the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). [1]
CENL is a professional organization operating as a foundation, being an advocate of closer cooperation and knowledge-sharing among European national libraries. The purpose of the grant is to support innovative library projects, with a particular focus on the preservation and wide accessibility of national cultural heritage.
The Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant, established in honour of the former, distinguished director of the Royal Library of Denmark in 2017, provides up to 5,000 euros annually for projects that promote international relations and professional collaborations between CENL member libraries.
The 2025 application period took place between 8th January and 7th February 2025. After the approval, the CENL Executive Committee made its decision on 27th February 2025 and three library projects were awarded funding accordingly. NSZL was again one of the winners, continuing its success from 2023 when its joint project with the Luxembourg National Library was awarded.
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The current project focuses on developing digital philology and supporting digital human sciences. The shared goal of NSZL and the National Library of Scotland is to map and share best practices in digital processing and services, particularly in the following areas:
- Creating and integrating georeferenced maps into digital platforms;
- Using linked data and applying digital services through visualization technologies;
- Developing handwritten text recognition (HTR) models in Hungarian and Gaelic languages, using the Transkribus software.
Additionally, the project aims to enhance the research of web archives and the structured processing of web-generated data.
The National Library of Scotland will share its experience in creating and securing research data sets, while the Hungarian National Library will present the solutions having developed in-house, and which are aimed at processing and reusing the text extracted from web archives.
As a result of this collaboration, innovative approaches and techniques may emerge that will contribute to the long-term development of digital human sciences and the expansion of digital services and projects in national libraries