Monthly Archives: October 2015

Coordinating the digitization of German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe – a concept proposal for an International Working Group

Communication, International Workshop 2015 ,Digitizing-German language cultural heritage', Network, Strategy papers,

[Paper by Albert Weber (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies) at the International Workshop Digitizing German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe on April 28, 2015:]

I will present you in the following our proposal for the buildup of organizational structures which could serve the process of digitizing the German-language heritage in Eastern Europe.

The current situation presents itself as a multitude of single projects which in the best cases are conducted in quite selective cooperations, including often no more than two or three partners. Consequently many possible synergy effects are not being exploited, resulting in unused potentials. A strategic organization of the digitization process can surely achieve a more efficient investment of financial means, a higher technical standard, a better modality of presentation and a faster accomplishment of a largely completion of the digitization of this heritage. Continue reading Coordinating the digitization of German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe – a concept proposal for an International Working Group →

500 gigabytes of history and culture – resources of Elbląg Digital Library as a part of Polish, German and overall European cultural heritage

International Workshop 2015 ,Digitizing-German language cultural heritage', Presentation, Stock presentations, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1. Historical outline

The beginnings of Elbląg Library date back to the year 1601, in which the library of Elbląg Academic Gymnasium (the first school of its kind in Royal Prussia) was founded. The first purchase of the library was a book collection of the deceased Gymnasium rector Thomas Rotus bought due to the funds offered by the City Council. Later on the library stock was expanded by books purchased or bequeathed by former school professors, mayors, priests and other patricians. Continue reading 500 gigabytes of history and culture – resources of Elbląg Digital Library as a part of Polish, German and overall European cultural heritage →

Presentation of digitized German-language cultural materials from Eastern Europe

Presentation, Strategy papers,

[Contribution to the Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe:]

An essential aspect for a broader general reception of the digitized stocks is their clear and structured presentation as coherent corpora. One of the most important objectives of the process must therefore be the buildup of collections within major regional and digital national libraries. Continue reading Presentation of digitized German-language cultural materials from Eastern Europe →

Communication on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe

Communication, Strategy papers,

[Contribution to the Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe:]

Indispensable for a successful digitization process is the factor of communication between the digitizing institutions. A technical contribution for this desideratum is the buildup of a collaborative database for digitized German-language materials from Eastern Europe which could complement the aforementioned projected bibliographical database or even be based on it Continue reading Communication on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe →

Funding prospects for the digitization of German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe

Funding, Strategy papers,

[Contribution to the Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe:]

Producing legitimacy for the costly undertaking of the process of digitizing German-language cultural heritage must be a basic objective for the contributing institutions. This purpose however cannot exclusively be fulfilled by presenting it as collaborative and internationalized. In order to successfully lobby for it, the issue needs to be connected with the general consideration that all historical ethnical minority communities do have the right to have their heritage digitized by their home state’s institutions. Continue reading Funding prospects for the digitization of German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe →

Networking in the process of digitizing German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe

Network, Strategy papers,

[Contribution to the Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe:]

The formation of efficient organizational structures is essential for the coordination of the process which would otherwise be slowed down and miss the utilization of synergetic potentials like e.g. the division of labour and competences. The creation of an informal group as a think-tank on the digitization of German-language cultural heritage seems adequate for this purpose. Continue reading Networking in the process of digitizing German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe →

Selection of digitizable German-language cultural materials from Eastern Europe

Selection, Strategy papers,

[Contribution to the Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe:]

Decisive for a successful application for funding and for a project or program itself are conclusive criteria for the selection of the proposed stocks. If a digitization plan is not intended to serve the needs of a specific project, but furthermore to generally contribute to the cultural preservation of a minority, then the following regard should be given to the expected cultural impact level of the stocks, evaluating these as follows: 1) culturally significant; 2) culturally representative; 3) masterpieces; 4) unique; 5) endangered. Continue reading Selection of digitizable German-language cultural materials from Eastern Europe →

Documentation of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe

Documentation, Strategy papers,

[Contribution to the Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe:]

A reliable overview on a cultural heritage is provided by an elementary bibliography which is indicating the digitizable sources. In a first step the already existing bibliographical publications are to be evaluated. If major gaps of important, bibliographically undocumented materials are identified, these should eventually be resolved. In a second step the bibliographical data is to be digitized, merged and transferred to a database which is finally giving the necessary overview on the sources which provably existed. The third step is to verify their present existence by confronting the bibliographical data with the physically confirmed stocks in libraries, archives and even private collections. Continue reading Documentation of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe →

Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe

Communication, Documentation, Funding, General information, International Workshop 2015 ,Digitizing-German language cultural heritage', Network, Presentation, Selection, Strategy papers,

The following scheme is proposing a series of general guidelines on the process of digitizing German-language cultural heritage in East and Southeast Europe and explicitly requesting a critical feedback or review; please comment on it or write a reply post in order to initiate a continued discussion on the topic. Continue reading Strategy paper on the digitization of the German-language cultural heritage from Eastern Europe →