KONGRE BİLDİRİLERİ
Digitalization of Hadji Sinan’s tekke holding
The Project of digitalization and microfilming encompassed the entire archival materials of HadjiSinan’s tekke holding, which contains over 30,000 pages of written materials. The holding contains
manuscripts originating from the Ottoman period, which are the oldest and most valuable part of the
holding, as well as printed books, being gathered in the tekke from its foundation, and documentary
handwritten materials (silsila-namas, hilafet-namas, etc.).
This project will significantly help us protect the handwritten and printed materials of the
mentioned holding, which present a very valuable source for researching the history of Sarajevo and
its wider surroundings, particularly considering the fact that the holding contains some rare written
materials that cannot be found in other similar institutions in either Bosnia and Herzegovina or the
region. We are of the opinion that this cultural and historical treasure, which makes part of the common
cultural heritage of the South-East Europe, needs to be protected and preserved as much as possible,
particularly since it is not being held in the entirely adequate conditions, nor has it been adequately
treated and addressed in public.
During the realization of digitalization project, we have decided to create microfilm copies as well,
based on the digital copies. The reason for that is simple: digital copies, without further conversions
and interventions, have a maximum lifespan of 10 years, while microfilmed copies are proven to last
up to 100 years.
Two documents and manuscripts after the process of digitalization.
Considering the budget allotted by the ministry with jurisdiction, and keeping in mind the current
market prices (digitalization, microfilming, softwares, etc.), we have decided to hire the company
from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to try obtaining the best results, through public-private interests.
Creation of quality archival software, in accordance with the international standards for the
description of the archival materials, holdings and collections is currently underway. In that way, the
digitalized materials will be made available to researches via Internet as well.
For start, the archivists in the Historical archive Sarajevo have prepared a digital inventory of the
mentioned holding, in MS Excel, applying the scientific transcription for the texts written in Arabic
letters, with the aim to make the IT technicians’ job easier. Basic data for every document, manuscript
or printed book (year of writing or publishing, writer or transcriber, place of origin, language, alphabet
type, placement in the archival box and shelf, etc.) were given in nine columns.
Digital inventory in MS Excel
Process of digitalization (from scanning to end-user)
a) We used Konica Minolta Book Scanner PS500C MKII for digitalization. Every raw photograph
(containing 2 pages each) was photographed with the resolution of 300 dpi and saved as uncompressed
TIFF file.
b) After that, we processed each photograph with Scan Tailor, the open-source software, which
we used to further improve the quality (we separated the pages, lined them up and performed some
additional quality control).
c) Having finished the processing, we saved the photos as TIFF files, with 300 dpi resolution.
d) The next step was to create a black and white derivative, for microfilms and PDF versions of
the books, in order to enable the users to work with them more easily. Texts in Latin alphabet