AVefi plus - Establishment and expansion of the automated network system for audiovisual holdings via standardised film identifier

• Applicants: Bernd Desinger; Heleen Gerritsen, since 8/2025; Professor Dr. Malte Hagener; Margret Plank; Professor Dr. Ramin Yahyapour
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 517778207

The networking of standardised, scientific metadata across institutions is an overarching social goal that enables more efficient structures and innovations. The AV-EFI project is making a novel contribution to audiovisual collections as cultural heritage and a basis for research, particularly in film and media studies and the digital humanities. It is developing a cross-institutional, automated reference system for identifying and linking film works, their manifestations and the associated (data) objects. Persistent identifiers (PIDs) based on the handle system play a central role. These PIDs serve as unique film identifiers (efi) and enable the automated registration of audiovisual materials. Metadata from local databases of various institutions are brought together in a structured way and made freely available in the long term. Disambiguation and metadata synchronisation between institutions are supported by automatic synchronisation processes. Collaboration with practice partners and research communities has been and is being initiated in the project and detailed requirements, rules and workflows, particularly in metadata management, are being developed. The development of a functional prototype for flexible searches for film works, manifestations and items is well advanced. The content focus is on German-language film productions, educational, teaching and scientific films as well as amateur film material in order to make "small" films visible in research. AVefi plus (phase II, implementation), which is planned as a continuation project of AV-EFI, builds on the results of the first phase and pursues three main objectives: Further development of the prototype network system into a reliable service with an operating model. Expansion of the AVefi community and integration of additional (international) data sources with a special focus on film-related materials. Extensive communication and community work, in particular to promote data skills in media and film studies and the digital humanities. The rules and network-based technology developed in the first phase of the project for recording work entities and manifestations form the basis for the systematic integration of film-related materials such as photographs, scripts and production files. These enable interdisciplinary research into the social, technical and sociological aspects of film production. Heterogeneous collections are increasingly being digitised and recorded according to object-specific indexing standards. In order to enable comprehensive categorisation, it is essential to clearly identify them as part of a work. AVefi plus will therefore develop solutions for film-related materials in particular in order to ensure their integration into the research infrastructure.

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Sven Bingert; Antje Dittmann; Thomas Ochs; Matti Stöhr
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Rainer Rother, until 8/2025