MOSCOW, July 2 (RIA Novosti) – The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, is ready to pay about 50 cents a page to scan some 630,000 sheets of congressional documents, according to a tender posted on the state purchases website on Tuesday.
The winner of the 9.5 million ruble ($300,000) tender will have to digitize about 320,000 pages of hearings, round-table discussions and other events, as well as some 310,000 sheets of additional materials, including from the tsarist State Duma of 1906-1917.
The documents must be digitalized by the modern Duma’s 20th anniversary in December. Bids will be accepted through July 19, and the electronic auction will be held on July 26.
“The digital library is intended to ensure certified access to original documents in electronic form,” the tender says, adding that the documents mostly include black-and-white texts, with many on low-quality paper, in small print and/or appearing illegible.
