Hyland Software and partner HP are supporting a new stage of a document scanning and archiving project at Bletchley Park, the country estate renowned for being at the centre of Britain’s efforts to decrypt German coded messages during World War II.
Exactly 100 years since the birth of Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and early computer scientist who made important contributions to code-breaking during the Second World War, new wartime secrets from the Park’s archives will be unearthed using Hyland Software and HP’s technologies. Many of these documents have been undisturbed for over 70 years.
Bletchley Park, WWII Home of the Codebreakers, is owned by the Bletchley Park Trust. HP and the Bletchley Park Trust started the first scanning phase of the project in 2010 as part of a five to ten year plan. In undertaking this latest project between HP and Hyland, the Trust is seeking to digitally archive its extensive store of wartime paper documents such as intercepted messages, translations and maps.
HP is supplying the scanning hardware required while Hyland Software is providing its hosted ECM solution, OnBase Online, to archive the scanned images. As a non-profit organisation, Bletchley Park relies on visitor admissions income and private monetary contributions to remain open to the public and OnBase Online will enable the Trust to use its extensive records not only as a public research and learning resource but also for essential revenue generation, increasing publicity and eventually allowing users to purchase copies of specific documents.
Staff and volunteers will examine the documents and classify them according to dates, battles, locations, and the individuals involved. The data will then be integrated and automatically linked with other content, to help tell the full story of what happened. This linking of documents related to specific events has never been done before.
“This partnership with Hyland and HP is hugely important for us to take the scanning project to the next level in the process. Since we started the project with HP two years ago, we’ve now processed 15,000 documents and with Hyland carrying out the archiving and categorising of all the documents, we will soon be able to make the information available for all to see.” says Iain Standen, CEO of the Bletchley Park Trust. “By choosing Hyland’s OnBase Online, we have a tailor-made archiving system that will enable the public to interact with the historic records, so for the first time we will be revealing a holistic 360 degree view of the information.”
Once online and classified, the information is planned to be available on the Bletchley Park website and eventually on information terminals around the Park. The public will be able to further classify the information and comment or upload their own material using a secure OnBase Workflow, which will be created and monitored by the Trust’s staff.
James Longstaff, Hyland Software’s director of sales, Europe and South Africa, adds: “We are delighted to partner with HP to help the Trust unearth, capture, manage, protect, store and access its extensive archive collection – you never know what wartime secrets we may discover.”
Dexter Harriss, HP’s UK & Ireland Marketing Manager, Imaging and Printing, said: “We’ve been proud of our partnership with the Bletchley Park Trust as we realise the historical importance of preserving these unique documents, and working with Hyland means the process is more refined and enabling documents to soon be accessible online. Hyland’s OnBase solution perfectly complements the scanning process already established and together we look forward to uncovering more secrets from the WWII.”