README.md

metadata

language:
  - da
license: cc-by-4.0
size_categories:
  - 10K<n<100K
task_categories:
  - image-to-text
pretty_name: Historical Danish handwriting 1841-1939
tags:
  - OCR
  - HTR
  - handwritten
  - historical
dataset_info:
  features:
    - name: image
      dtype: image
    - name: doc_id
      dtype: int64
    - name: sequence
      dtype: int16
    - name: alto
      dtype: string
    - name: page
      dtype: string
  splits:
    - name: train
      num_bytes: 13431006807.116
      num_examples: 11292
  download_size: 15215109640
  dataset_size: 13431006807.116
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/train-*

Dataset Description

Dataset Summary

The Historical Danish handwriting dataset is a Danish-language dataset containing more than 11.000 pages of transcribed and proofread handwritten text.

The dataset currently consists of the published minutes from a number of City and Parish Council meetings, all dated between 1841 and 1939.

Languages

All the text is in Danish. The BCP-47 code for Danish is da.

Dataset Structure

Data Instances

Each data instance represents a single scanned, segmented and transcribed physical page with handwritten text.

Data Fields

• image: a jpeg image containing a scan of the original physical page
• doc_id: internal id of parent document (collection of single pages) to which the page belongs
• sequence: the specific pagenumber of the page within the parent document
• alto: an xml-encoded string containing layout and content information of the physical page, stored in ALTO XML, version 4.2
• page: an xml-encoded string containing layout and content information of the physical page, stored in PAGE XML, version 2013-07-15

To uniquely identify a single page within the dataset, one can use the doc_id integer in combination with the sequence integer.

Data Splits

[N/A]

Dataset Creation

Curation Rationale

The dataset originates from a need to make physical public protocols discoverable via fulltext search and filtering.

Source Data

The source data consists of written minutes from different City and Parish Council meetings, dating from 1841 to 1939.

Initial Data Collection and Normalization

The original physical minutes where collected and curated as part of the legal mandate of the Public City Archives in Denmark.

Who are the source language producers?

The digitized and transcribed minutes were originally written by the secretaries of the individual City and Parish Councils.

The layout segmentation and transcription of the digitized minutes is primarily done by volenteers and employees at the participating Danish city archives.

All layout segmentation and transcription is done using the Transkribus platform, either through the desktop client or via the web-based interface.

Annotations

Annotation process

When using the Transkribus clients to segment and transcribe the scanned pages, it is possible to add TEI-tags to single words or whole paragraphs.

These annotations have not been applied in any consistent manner, and should be ignored.

Who are the annotators?

The annotations are produced inside Transkribus by the volunteers and employees transcribing and proofreading the documents.

Personal and Sensitive Information

No efforts were made to anonymize the data.

The dataset might contain data that can be considered sensitive (e.g., data that reveals racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, political opinions or union memberships, or locations; financial or health data; biometric or genetic data; forms of government identification, such as social security numbers; criminal history).

Additional Information

Dataset Curators

The Danish handwriting dataset is curated by Aarhus City Archives, Denmark.

Licensing Information

The Danish handwriting dataset version 1.0.0 is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Contributions

First of all, many thanks to the many volunteers that have participated in the segmentation, trancription and proof reading of the archives!

The following parties and foundations have contributed financially to making this project possible:

• The Organization of Danish Archives (ODA)

• The digitization of parish council minutes from Aarhus has been paid for by the Arhus Municipality Archives Committee

• Region Midtjyllands kulturpulje for 2019

• The Augustinus Foundation, The Louis-Hansen Foundation and the Velux Foundation

• The Danish National Archives has provided scanning equipment for the sub-project “Roots of Democracy”.

Point of Contact: Claus Juhl Knudsen