Virtual Archives for Humanities Research

As part of a funding initiative by the Saxon State Ministry for Science and the Arts, the SAW coordinated the joint project “Virtual Archives for Humanities Research” from May 2017 to October 2019. This project involved the state-funded humanities research institutions of Saxony. To this end, a project group and a scientific committee were established, both led by the President of the SAW.

The research conducted by the Institute for Saxon History and Cultural Anthropology in Dresden, the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at TU Dresden, the Sorbian Institute in Bautzen and Cottbus, the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at Leipzig University, the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe in Leipzig, and the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig is based on a wide variety of sources, ranging from pictorial and material objects to increasingly multimedia and purely digital forms. Often, the relevant collections are widely dispersed and require extensive cataloging and integration. The digital availability of these sources is becoming increasingly important for scholarly work. The preparation and standardized provision of sources and research data enable diverse reuse and cross-disciplinary and cross-location analysis of materials on the internet, both for the academic community and the interested public. Virtual archives provide users with access tailored to specific focuses, which can be thematic, source- or material-based, epoch-related, time- or location-specific, or person-related. The ability to individually search the consolidated holdings of multiple archives opens new perspectives for research.

However, these new possibilities also raise numerous questions that can no longer be answered by individual institutions alone but only through collaboration. The role of research institutions as producers and disseminators of knowledge is increasingly expanding to include that of data custodians. Currently, significant infrastructures and repositories for the Digital Humanities are being built in consortia of libraries, archives, and universities on both national and international levels. Participation in these efforts requires coordinated workflows, compliance with technical, content-related, and legal standards, and the assurance of long-term archiving and persistent accessibility. This ongoing development poses considerable challenges for the humanities research institutions in Saxony.

Against this background, the joint “Virtual Archives” project provided an excellent opportunity to share the already existing, project-specific, and sometimes very specialized knowledge in the field of Digital Humanities among all participating institutions. This consolidation of expertise allowed all research institutions to benefit from one another. Furthermore, this type of cooperation helped to strengthen the networking of Saxon institutes in the digital realm, particularly with regard to the capacity to undertake joint activities or projects with external partners in the future.

Project duration:
May 2017 – January 2020

• Dr. habil. Anne-Simone Rous,
  Vita: https://www.clio-online.de/researcher/id/researcher-5306
• Silvio Dittrich M.A.,
  Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Projekt Wismut-Erbe-Forschung,
  E-Mail: dittrich@saw-leipzig.de
• Hendrik Keller M.A.,
  Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde,
  E-Mail: h.keller@isgv.de,
  Vita: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2397-8207
• Ivonne Makowski M.A.,
  Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Projekt Virtuelles Archiv der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
  E-Mail: makowski@saw-leipzig.de