Digitization is an important instrument in improving the accessibility of the valuable information contained in fragile historical works. In order to facilitate academic research and teaching, and to enhance access to historical texts of significance to the wider Bremen region, selected sections of the library's historical holdings have been digitized and published on a purpose-built portal. This project has also seen the development of the necessary infrastructure for the on-demand production of electronic full-text documents of sources urgently required for academic research.

From 2011 onwards, our new Digital Collection will provide access to a broad range of source materials, reference works, and studies relating to the history of Bremen, Bremerhaven, and the wider region. The heart of the collection is comprised of a selection of wide-ranging materials supplemented by numerous studies on various aspects of Bremen's history. Many of the landmark historical publications included in this collection have never been surpassed. In carrying out this project, the State and University Library Bremen seeks both to fulfill its role as the state library of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and to provide interested members of the public with easy access to historical documents of regional importance. New documents will be added to the collection on an ongoing basis and other formats will also be introduced in future.

The production, management, and presentation of our digitized media has been carried out using the Visual Library technology developed by semantics GmbH and Walter Nagel GmbH. All of the electronic publications contained in this collection will be indexed in the library's catalogs, and made available online to the general public at no charge. Bremen's digitization platform has been designed to comply with the German Research Council's latest open standards and will interface with national and international reference systems including the German Digital Library and Europeana.

Work on this project, officially titled "Retrospective digitization of historical maps at the State and University Library Bremen", began in 1997. The project has benefited from the generous support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) through its funding program for the retrospective digitization of library holdings. A total of 3800 historical maps were digitized in the years leading up to 2002 and can now be accessed online through our "Historical Maps" portal.