Norway’s National Library increases digitization efficiency with Phase One iXH 150MP

With a legal mandate to archive everything that is published in Norway, the Library’s Photo Department digitizes over 300,000 objects per year and makes them available online – requiring outstanding equipment that maximizes their productivity.

The challenge

Norway’s National Library is required by a legal deposit law to collect everything published in Norway, be it a book, journal, newspaper, television program, radio, and even the Norwegian part of the Internet.

In 2020, Norway’s Cultural Department initiated funding to expand the digitization program for all the archives, libraries, and museums in Norway.

The Library’s Cultural Heritage Digitization Department in the town of Mo i Rana collects publications to make them available for research and preserve them for future use.

With a vast amount of archived material to process, efficiently achieving accurate and usable imagery is of paramount importance.

The National Library receives materials to be digitized from other archives, libraries, and museums in Norway. Since many institutions do not want the physical materials back, they are stored in a mountain vault.

Explore Phase One’s heritage digitization solution.

Upgraded workstations to increase effectiveness

When the National Library receives materials, they are sent through what they call production lines for digitization. To increase their throughput the library sought to upgrade their existing workstations with Phase One cameras. They also added an additional workstation, bringing the total to five.

They needed a solution that could meet the demands of the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative for digitizing transparent materials.

As Marius Nyheim Kristoffersen, Digitization Coordinator of the National Library of Norway says, “Phase One had the only camera with 150 megapixels, which made it possible to digitize 35mm and 120mm photographic negatives in a resolution of 4000 ppi in one shot.”

“There was no competitor that could offer cameras with the same number of megapixels at the time.”

Read more details about our cameras for heritage conservation.

Heritage imaging setup with Phase One accessories

Phase One iXH 150MP gives the ultimate image quality

The Phase One iXH 150MP is a powerful camera system that delivers the highest resolution, achieving the 300ppi benchmark for A0-size flat objects such as maps and drawings.

Built around a 151-megapixel CMOS backside illuminated (BSI) sensor, it delivers the highest available image resolution. The sensor’s dynamic range of 15 f-stops boosts light sensitivity with minimal noise, capturing the smallest details and unmatched color fidelity.

The iXH is built on the Infinity Platform – a powerful processing engine that seamlessly handles large files at high speed, for a long duration, perfectly supporting high-volume cultural heritage digitization programs.

Archival collection setup for digitizing transparencies

Increased efficiency with a flexible solution

The National Library’s solution included Phase One film strip holders, the Phase One Film Capture Stage, a camera stand, glass plates, extension tubes, and lenses. After receiving help installing the equipment and a day of training from Phase One, they were ready to go.

Both the camera and software solution have proven faster and more flexible than their prior systems.

As the Director of the National Library of Norway’s Cultural Heritage Digitization Department Svein Arne Solbakk says, “We can already see that we have increased our efficiency as compared with the previous technology we had for digitizing this kind of photos.”

Marius Nyheim Kristoffersen adds: “It is easy to adjust height, add or remove extension tubes, set the correct ppi and adjust exposure settings, all of which makes it possible to quickly switch between and digitize different types of materials during the day. Combined with our methods, routines, and an effective production line developed in-house, this has increased our production rate.”

Before the Phase One solution, the library managed to digitize about 60-80 objects per day on each workstation. Since getting the Phase One solution, they are now digitizing on average 148 per day on each workstation.

Learn more about film digitization.

Slide digitization using library camera workstation

Easily handling various material types

The library is now using the Phase One solution for all kinds of photographic materials, including photographic transparencies like 35mm, 120mm, 4×5″, other formats like 126mm and 8×10″, and glass plates in all shapes. They are also using it for digitizing slides and reflective material including postcards, photocopies, albums, and posters.

All these material types require different techniques, but since the Phase One solution is streamlined and flexible, and the starting point for digitizing flat material is similar, it is easy to go from one setup to another.

“It’s very easy to switch between extension tubes, quickly adjusting height and set the right PPI according to what material is being photographed,” says Marius Nyheim Kristoffersen.

Phase One's transferring speed and the number of details and wide dynamic range the camera can capture are impeccable. All of this has improved our production rate, workflow, and routines significantly – not least the quality of what we digitize and share with the public.

Marius Nyheim Kristoffersen

Digitization Coordinator, National Library Norway

Library technician operating high-end digitization camera

High-quality images reliably produced

The Phase One solution has proven its ability to capture objects with outstanding quality.

“We’ve been very happy with the solution so far,” says Marius Nyheim Kristoffersen. “The sharpness of the lenses and how well the camera and Capture One Cultural Heritage software speaks together makes the solution very reliable.”

“Its transferring speed and the number of details and wide dynamic range the camera can capture are impeccable. All of this has improved our production rate, workflow, and routines significantly – not least the quality of what we digitize and share with the public.”

Into the future of more automation

The National Library is now looking into methods to increase their efficiency even further, including looking into more automated ways to position film under the camera.

Post-processing is a key area where they are trying to find ways to develop digitized objects faster and more effectively. They are testing different analyzing tools in search of something that can auto crop images as well as autocorrecting and improving the dynamic area more truthfully and according to different film types – something that is especially crucial working with color negatives.

Learn more about the National Library of Norway:

https://www.nb.no/en/