RetroPro 2: Retrodigitization and Completition of the Digital Archive of Adult Education Centre Programm Brochures

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Josef Schrader
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education ; Security and Dependability, Operating-, Communication- and Distributed Systems
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 315424219

In the project the retro-digitization and completion of the programme archive for adult education centres is concluded and its usability for researchers is optimised. In contrast to school, vocational and university education, adult and continuing education is only curricularised to a small extent. Thus, information concerning institutional or provider content focus and profiles is mainly provided in programme brochures and programme announcements. Continuing education programmes are not only a reliable source for the needs and requirements of adult and continuing education target groups but also an expression of the cultural practice of teaching and learning and therefore of educational ideas and realities. Programme brochures of adult education centres (Volkshochschulen) are of outstanding and supra-regional significance for historic and didactic research in a vital area of German adult education. In addition, they are a culturally and locally relevant source due to their reflection of rural and urban social and cultural changes. The DIE collects semester programmes provided by German adult education centres in the Adult Education Centre Programme Archive since 1957. Since 2004, the collection was continued for a selected representative sample of 50 adult education centres in a digital archive. In the initial project (Retro-Digitization and Completion of the Programme Archive for Adult Education Centres), older sample programmes from the DIE collection were included in the online archive and made accessible. As a result, online access to the history of educational contents of German adult education centres from the post-war period until today was created for historic and didactic research. The integration of data not only in professional research environments but also in universal digital libraries and catalogues facilitates a utilization by various academic fields. The preceding project could not take all existing older programmes of the sample into consideration. The projection, which predicted a volume of 250,000 pages, had underestimated the average number of pages in each programme brochure and the partly extensive supplements. In addition, collection gaps were closed during the project phase. As a result, an additional 147,000 pages are to be digitalized and developed with the project proposal. The project also includes feedback to the expertise as well as the clearly articulated needs of the researchers regarding development, presentation and export formats. In particular, exemplary infrastructural solutions for demanding research access is to be developed. The results will be included in a compendium with feasibility estimations and recommendations.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Peter Brandt