The National Library of Spain digitizes its audiovisual archives with Sony

The institution is carrying out an ambitious project to preserve its analog archives on tape with Memnon, a Sony company.

The experts in digital transformation Red.es and the National Library of Spain (BNE), an institution dedicated to the deposit and conservation of the national bibliographic heritage, launched a call for bids to digitize analog files from cassettes and VHS tapes to preserve your valuable video and audio files. Digitalization specialists I don't remember, a company Sony, were selected to safeguard this part of the country's heritage. Libnova collaborated on this project with Memnon.

In 2018, after years of planning, the BNE and Red.es began such a project in their collection of audiovisual materials, made up of more than 700,000 articles whose content was in serious danger of loss. Through a first selection of 11,000 items (which included audiovisual materials made, composed or written by Spaniards) the library decided to prioritize the archives that best reflect Spanish culture to begin the digitization project.

To develop the project, Red.es awarded it, as a result of an open call for tenders, to Memnon, a provider of digitization services to restore, preserve and provide access to audiovisual recordings of any format. The Library thus joins other prestigious European organizations, such as the British Library and the National Library of France, to select Memnon's Portable Plug and Play Solution, which digitizes multiple recordings at the same time and follows the necessary preservation standards.

Memnon formed part of Intelligent Media Services (IMS) offering a portfolio of open technology and services, which transform traditional media supply chains and enable Sony customers to capture, manage and deliver content while adding value.

Stuart Almond, Head of Intelligent Media Services at Sony, highlights that "the work carried out by Memnon at the National Library of Spain, beyond reflecting a commitment to the preservation of European culture, is another example of Sony's ability to develop revolutionary technologies that adapt to the needs of any organization or institution."

Mar Pérez Morillo, director of digital processes and services at BNE, comments that "the obsolescence and fragility of these audiovisual formats required an urgent digitization process to preserve their content. The highly specialized human and technical resources provided by Memnon, with the help of Libnova, made the successful achievement of this project possible, in order to preserve an important part of our cultural heritage."

Through this project, the BNE, Red.es Memnon worked together not only to migrate physical and analog formats to digital, but to guarantee their use and benefit in the near future.