Geofond digital archive

Systematic digitization of unpublished documents and maps stored in the Geofond archive started in 2004 at a newly established specialist office in Prague, and since 2006 the work of this office has been widened to include digitization of the documents held in the geophysical archive at the Brno Branch of the CGS.

Making digital copies of archived paper documents is the only way to ensure that these records are permanently protected from gradual degradation caused by aging and handling of the paper originals. By this means, they remain legible and are easily accessible to the public. The digitization workplaces are technically very well equipped with large-format map scanners and scanners with automatic feeders as well as book scanners. The Prague workplace is responsible for the systematic “rescue” of fundamental geological documents and also scans items from the archive to order for customers. The workplace at the Brno geophysical archive is responsible for the systematic digitization of the records from the former enterprise Geofyzika Corp., Brno, entering the electronic copies in the geophysical database and making these accessible to the public. At present, nearly 50,000 archived documents have been digitized. This amounts obout 20 % of the total archive, in other words over 4 billion pages.

Access to and provision of digitized documents from the archive

Information about all reports and expert opinions held in the Geofond archive, which are also accessible in electronic form, can be obtained by searching in the application ASGI searching, where the digitized documents are marked by a coloured icon and individual pages are presented as informative previews. Documents from the Geofond archive can be obtained in an electronic form either:

• by choosing items from the archive of reports and expert opinions that has already been scanned
• by digitization to order of documents from the paper archive that have not yet been scanned (in this case it is necessary to allow some time for delivery)

An official order should be submitted. The services provided are charged according to the current price list. The chosen data files are delivered in an agreed format, either on CD/DVD or sent by electronic mail.

Contact: RNDr: Renata Kachlíková

Access to and provision of digitized maps from the archive

Detailed information about the map documents that it can provide in digital form are listed on the page of the Map archive

Contact: RNDr. Alena Čejchanová