ViewONE for National Library of New Zealand

Citation

(2004), "ViewONE for National Library of New Zealand", The Electronic Library, Vol. 22 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2004.26322eab.007

ViewONE for National Library of New Zealand

ViewONE for National Library of New Zealand

When the National Library of New Zealand needed to give its members and Web site visitors easy access to periodicals, newspapers and books it turned to Daeja Image Systems to deliver a simple software solution to enable easy online viewing of its collection of scanned documents.

The National Library plays a unique role in maintaining literature and historical documents about New Zealand and nearby islands. But in common with libraries worldwide, rare documents, books and newspapers were facing damage through repeat handling and exposure to light and air. To help preserve the documentary heritage of New Zealand while increasing public access to its collection – both online and via on-site PCs – the library developed a digital strategy.

To bring its online content to life for users, Daeja Image Systems stepped in to deliver ViewONE, its in-browser viewer onto the National Library Web server. This provides a robust, flexible image viewing solution that gives free, easy access to all visitors that want to read a broad range of digital documents – without the need for any client desktop software or configuration.

Steve Knight, manager of Digital Strategy Implementation at the National Library of New Zealand said, “With potential users all over the world, we needed a global image viewing system that would be simple to use enabling access to the Library’s historic resources quickly, effectively and in a way that would take account of disparate browser and hardware technology.”

“We were delighted to discover Daeja’s ViewONE software and it quickly became apparent that it was the right tool for the job. Since its adoption, ViewONE has been outstanding on all levels. The specification and performance are excellent – allowing users to view each periodical on a page-by-page basis at the optimum resolution quality and in its native TIFF format. Behind the scenes, the Daeja team provides excellent technical assistance – on the rare occasions it is needed.”

Jeremy Jones, marketing manager at Daeja added, “The ViewONE portfolio of products is ideally suited to any organization that needs to provide users with access to a wide range of documents, no matter what their location or computer set up. The beauty of ViewONE is that now it is set up on the Library’s central server, users can intuitively and easily access documents immediately with no need for configuration to their own desktop. By integrating ICT practices into the running of the Library and scanning newspapers, books, periodicals and historical documents, a rapidly expanding digital collection is universally accessible online, paving the way for similar developments in libraries across the world.”