Building a German Archives Portal

• Applicants: Dr. Frank M. Bischoff; Dr. Leni Helmes; Professor Dr. Robert Kretzschmar; Dr. Elisabeth Niggemann; Dr. Andrea Wettmann
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 225946984

With our project 'Building a German Archives Portal', we have established a basis to enable users to access digital archival records (e. g. information on institutions, index information as well as digitized archival material) via the internet. The project kicked off at the end of 2012 and is scheduled to run until April of 2015. It offers central and comprehensive access to archival material of all kinds of German archives, spanning state and municipal archives, church archives, business archives et al. Researchers are now able to sift through the finding aids provided by the participating archives, to view search results and, if available, to have a look at digital copies of archival records. Thus, the Archivportal-D also significantly facilitates and accelerates comparative research in the inventories of a wide variety of different archives.The project forms part of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB). In addition to developing and further customizing the data management layer for the Archivportal-D we have already generated a presentation layer specifying the different types of archives (online at www.archivportal-d.de since 09/24/2014). In terms of organisation and technical environment, the Archivportal-D has been embedded within the DDB. Hence we are able to guarantee a long-term and persistent operation.During the follow-up phase we are now applying for, the project¿s focus will gradually shift from the portal setup to content acquisition and data processing. On the one hand, we want more archives to join our project, accompanied by an increasing effort to tie up archival networks such as ARIADNE. On the other hand, we need to consolidate and further simplify workflows as well as tools for data processing and data management in order to keep the barriers of data provision as low as possible. This includes establishing EAD (DDB) as standard interchange format with the producers of archives software, for the majority of relevant indexing software does not yet contain mature interfaces matching the EAD format. Not least, we need to optimize and facilitate data ingest and data update processes, so archives will be able to initiate these processes on their own. In this context, a close cooperation with the DDB is evident. Moreover, the Archivportal-D shall provide a full and detailed overview of all German archive facilities. We also intend to open up the portal for users of mobile devices by setting up and implementing a responsive design. Against the background of an increasing significance of authority records to semantically connect information ¿ a vital requirement for portals in particular ¿, we are planning to add authority records to prototypeselected archival material. At the same time, the Archivportal-D shall eventually offer its users a corresponding range of functions based on those authority records.

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Irmgard Becker