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Abstract. The current status and future development of the WideField Plate Database, which is in preparation at the Institute of Astronomy in Sofia, are described. The database will be centralized and will provide on-line access to the information on about 2 million photographic observations.

We present an inventory ofthe Carte du Ciel (CdC) plates stored in the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam. The Potsdam CdC zone (+32° to +39°) was divided into 1232 areas and about 2200 plates from the first and second epochs were obtained within the framework of the CdC project. At present, only 977 plates (45% of all) are stored in AIP, the others got lost during the Second World War. The plates for the first epoch measurements had been obtained during the period 1893 May– 1900 February. The plates for the second epoch (1913 August–1924 February) can be separated into two time intervals according to the observer and the observing method used: from 1913 August till 1914 July, and from 1916 February to 1924 February. The present work aims to provide online access to the plate information, given in the plate catalogue and is the first step to online access to the plate images digitized with flatbed scanners.

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Here we describe the technology and the experience during the astronomical photographic plate digitization with flatbed EPSON scanners. More than 275000 plates in different observatories in Europe were digitized with such scanners last decade.