RCIN, this is The digital repository of scientific institutes, in 2010 as a result of a popular initiative of the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Its mission is to digitize and disseminate scientific resources as widely as possible.
RCIN is a continuation of the activities started in 2008 under the name The digital library of the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The digital repository was created and is being developed mainly as a result of the implementation of two projects jointly implemented by a group of Polish research institutes. Both projects are financed by the European Union and the state budget. The assumption of the first project was to create a supraregional and interdisciplinary digital repository consisting of digital archival materials, scholarly publications, research documentation and literary cultural heritage.
The essence of the second project OZwRCIN, is an open access, archiving and dissemination of public sector information from partners collected from research institutes. OZwRCIN is an open source project implemented as part of the RCIN platform, created in collaboration with 16 research institutes. This project is to make open source available in the digital repository of scientific institutes. It is financed by the European Union from the resources of the European Regional Development Fund and the state budget.
What are the capabilities of the RCIN platform? As Dorota Czarnoka Chichiora, Head of the OZwRCIN Project at the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences emphasized, Thanks to the resources of the repository, it is possible to conduct modern research and analyze its results. In addition, the materials collected by RCIN contribute to increasing the competitiveness of Polish science in the international arena and the transfer of research results to the economy.
Currently, users of the digital repository have access to more than 200,000 items, including digital scientific data, items of multilingual literature, manuscripts, current scholarly articles, and historical collections related to the exact sciences, medicine, natural sciences, and humanities. Will it be possible to include it there as well in the near future? Valuable archival astronomical dataIncluding pictures and glass paintings? Time will tell.
The RCIN platform also gives us access to very unique items. There we can find, among other things, rare materials and unpublished scientific works (including astronomy and cosmology) Or groups that we can’t actually see, for example because of their poor technical condition. The portal contains, among other things, old books of Polish botanists – Dorota Czarnoka Chikiura, project manager, points out.
The digital repository is basically meant for everyone. INCLUDES RCIN crop Addressed to a wide range of society. It can be used by both people who are passionate about literature and those who are closest to nature and culture. The abundance of repository resources makes it an ideal place for experts, journalists, hobbyists, teachers or students. Using the platform is very simple. Simply go to the RCIN website and enter the topic you are interested in into the search engine in Polish or English. Most digital repository items are available for free and do not require an account to use and no download fees. However, creating an account will allow you to create your own lists of favorite items, export these lists to a file and subscribe to the list of newly added objects.
So what about copyright? The repository makes every effort to ensure that as many posts as possible appear in the resources of the platform, and at the same time ensure that the copyrights of each element of the collection are respected. RCIN staff check daily whether the copyright of collected material has expired and whether documents can be placed on the platform. All this to pass on as much material as possible to future generations.
– We archive the past and present for the future, for scholars, students, netizens and … for you! Summarizing the specialists of the RCIN.
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Source: RCIN
Prepared by: Elżbieta Kuligowska
Pictured: examples of RCIN astronomical resources.
