Since 2022, the University Library has been working on digitising and AI transcribing the extensive Catalogue-1957, a central catalogue of the library's older collections. The newly developed search function makes it possible to find information that was previously difficult or impossible to discover in microfilms and analogue cards.
"We have long known that Cat-57 contains enormous amounts of knowledge, but much of it has been practically hidden. Now we can search the entire transcribed text – not just individual indexed keywords," says Kristian Knutsson, librarian at the University Library.
The new search system, Digitised Card Catalogues, also makes the material open and searchable for everyone.
Unexpected hit in free text search
When a large order of older scientific literature came in, University Library librarian Mats Larsson did a free text search in the recently digitised Catalogue-1957. An entry appeared showing that De revolutionibus had been in the collections all along – but under the wrong name.
“The work was bound together with Heinrich Münster’s Rudimenta mathematica and was therefore sorted under Münster, both in the physical and the previously digitised catalogue. That’s why it was never possible to find it through a normal search,” says Mats Larsson.
The librarians were then able to confirm that the volume was on the shelf and that Copernicus' text was included in it.
"This is exactly how digitisation should work"
The discovery of Copernicus' famous work is a concrete example of the power of making older catalogue material searchable using modern methods.
"We are opening doors to collections that were previously difficult to overview and creating entirely new opportunities for research. This is exactly how digitisation should work. It should give us new access to the material," says Kristian Knutsson.
He humbly says that it is gratifying that the University Library found this particular work, but he believes that the methodology is what is really important.
“It shows the potential of making even large and impenetrable catalogues machine-searchable.