Norwegian digitisation hits 13 million

The National Archives of Norway has scanned around 13 million microfilm images as part of a project to digitise a considerable part of its holdings and make all the information contained on microfilm readily available to the public via the internet.

Three NextScan Eclipse 300 Rollfilm production level scanners are being used to digitise microfilm information stored in the archive, with one Kodak i1860 high volume scanner purchased to scan paper records. The equipment was supplied by local Kodak reseller, Kibi Norge AS.

In total, it is expected that around 15 million microfilm images will be scanned with the project expected to be completed soon. A huge and varied range of records will be made available online including probate and court records, parish church registers, which list births, baptisms, still births, death and burial records, along with marriage registers, immigration and vaccination information. 

With 250,000 linear metres of documents in its possession, the National Archives of Norway holds information dating back to the Middle Ages right up to the present day.  Based in Oslo, it has eight branches throughout the country, and employs 250 staff. 

Svein Warberg, the National Archives of Norway’s digitisation projects advisor, explained, 'We wanted to make the most popular records, the parish church registers, available online first so researchers, genealogists and members of the public could access them for free. That’s where we started and the project has evolved from there.'