The State Museum at Majdanek, as part of a project entitled ‘Modernisation of the infrastructure of the State Museum at Majdanek’s Digitisation Laboratory’ under the Government’s Cultural Infrastructure Programme, funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, has acquired a high-end A2 art scanner with a platen, three monitors with built-in hardware calibration, and a software package for advanced processing of image files, video files and PDF documents.
Modernisation of the Museum’s Digitisation Workshop
Thanks to funding provided by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, we have significantly expanded our capacity for digitising our collections.
The scanner we have purchased is fitted with a sliding platen, the design of which allows for the digitisation of bound volumes without risking damage to the spine or the book block splitting. Thanks to multi-shot pixel shift technology, we are able to achieve a resolution of over 3,500 dpi and an extremely accurate reproduction of even the smallest archival items. The quality of the digital reproductions meets the international Metamorphose Full and ISO 19264-1 standards, which guarantees a faithful reproduction of details. Illumination from two adjustable lamps ensures control over shadows, enabling us to highlight details such as the texture of a material, the relief of a bas-relief or the shape of a seal impression – details that are invisible under direct lighting. Meanwhile, dedicated software automates part of the process of converting scans into presentation files.
The software package enables us to edit video footage and audio recordings and work with a wide range of file formats, whilst the three new monitors with hardware calibration have improved the conditions and quality of our work in this area.
What does this mean for us in practice?
Thanks to our newly acquired equipment, we are able to produce high-quality scans and digital reproductions of archival photographs, camp documents and prisoners’ mementoes. These faithfully reproduced details will enable us to utilise them even more effectively in the museum’s exhibition, educational and outreach projects. Meanwhile, specialised software partially automates the digitisation processes and significantly speeds up the development of the infrastructure for our digital repository.
Amount of funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage – 223,970.00 PLN
Date of contract signing: May 2026
Total cost of the project – 302,212.23 PLN
Own contribution from the State Museum at Majdanek – 78,242.23 PLN
Project implemented using funds at the disposal of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the ‘Cultural Infrastructure 2026’ programme
Project title: Modernisation of the infrastructure of the Digitisation Workshop at the State Museum at Majdanek
Funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state-funded special-purpose fund
