The German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture (FA) are cooperating in the long-term strategic operation of a database Arachne which aims at making these digitized images accessible worldwide.
Furthermore, the negatives are severely threatened by physical decomposition and destruction due to environmental influences, natural catastrophes like earthquakes and (in the long run) manual use.
The database was modified not only with regard to its contents, but also technically in response to the heterogeneous material, which varies greatly in type, chronology and cultural history.
To avoid exposing the fragile contents from the risks of long-distance transport, the images are being scanned in the departments of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in an ongoing process.
The scanned images are then sent to the Research Archive for digital processing, entry into a database and long-term storage on the SAN of the University of Cologne for the DAI.