The workshop will focus on the creation, validation and storage of the best possible retro-digitised material, ways of achieving the optimal format for digitisation, and ways of dealing with errors and pitfalls. What is the best format for images, metadata and full texts? How do they affect compatibility, quality, file size and long-term archiving? How can we prevent the creation of faulty master data that requires a great deal of effort to correct or even delete?

Practitioners of retro-digitisation and employees from libraries, scientific and other memory organisations will present resolved and unresolved issues in the field of retro-digitisation in nine 20-minute presentations followed by a discussion. Two software tools from the community will be presented live at a Best Practice Marketplace.

Information at a glance

• What: 8th Retro-Digitisation Workshop – Digitisation for eternity? Data quality in practice (in German)
• When: 19 and 20 March 2026
• Where: Berlin State Library, Haus Unter den Linden
• to the programme
• to register (open until 5 March 2026)
• registration fee: 130 Euro

The Berlin State Library is organising the workshop in collaboration with three German central specialist libraries: TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences, and ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for the Economic Sciences, with the support of NFDI4Culture.