The Saga Archive: Mapping and Visualizing a Swedish Children’s Book Series (1899–1970)

Initiated by school teachers in the late 19th century, Barnbiblioteket Saga (the Children’s Library Saga) was one of the most ambitious and extensive reading promotion projects ever undertaken in Sweden. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Saga archive was transferred to the newly founded Swedish Institute for Children’s Books.

The material remains largely unresearched, mainly because it is not as visible, accessible, and user-friendly as it could – and should – be.

This three-year study wishes to change this by exploring how digitization can be undertaken and developed, and laying the foundation for a digital infrastructure through which the archive can be made accessible to not only researchers, but also children and the general public.

The goal of the project is to present a selection of Saga’s literary texts in combination with other archival material.

Digital resources and metadata enable new ways of exploring the fragmented nature of the archive, new ways of understanding and describing how different documents relate to each other and their original context while simultaneously ensuring that the physical archive is kept as intact as possible.

Due to the wide distribution and influence of the Children’s Library Saga, digitizing material from the archive and making the ideas behind the Saga project more known will also promote the understanding of the general development of Swedish children’s literature in the 20th century.