Digitizing the Transylvanian Past

Challenges and Successes

Abstract

Digitéka was launched at the end of 2018, initiated and operated by the School Foundation in Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár. It provides free access to digitized press materials, books, and databases in Hungarian from Transylvania, and its goal is to make the entire Transylvanian Hungarian press collection fully accessible. Initially, it expanded its content in cooperation with Arcanum and the Transylvanian Databank, but since 2022 it has been developing through its own scanning equipment and by striking an agreement with the Central University Library of Cluj. The platform contains not only its own digitized materials but also provides access to other Transylvanian digitized content through hyperlinks, functioning as a collecting library. By 2025, it has automated the workflow partly with the help of artificial intelligence, significantly accelerating content processing. It has built up a capacity to digitize approximately 250,000 pages per year. The website has 300-500 returning, and 2-3,000 one-time users per month, primarily from Romania and Hungary.