Cooperative future operation and coordinated further development of the International Inventory of Musical Sources (RISM)

• Applicant: Professor Torsten Schrade
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551004982

The International Inventory of Musical Sources (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales, RISM) stands as one of the most important musicological information infrastructures worldwide, documenting the musical heritage from 53 countries across four continents with over 1.5 million records of music prints and manuscripts. With 500,000 visits and more than 13 million page accesses annually, RISM ranks among the most frequented digital resources in musicology. Through its integration into the services and data portfolio of the NFDI4Culture consortium, RISM now serves as a research data hub within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), offering innovative possibilities for data-driven music historiography and interdisciplinary reuse in line with the FAIR principles. Given that RISM's current funding within the Academies' Programme is set to conclude in 2025, the joint development of future operating models for this unique global musicological information infrastructure based on cooperative responsibility is of utmost importance and the central goal of this project. To this end, a consortium comprising the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz, the Bavarian State Library Munich, the State Library – Dresden State and University Library, the Berlin State Library, the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences has been formed. This consortium aims to transition RISM from its current structure to a cooperative, sustainably funded information infrastructure. The international RISM community of librarians and scholars is to be extensively involved in this transformation process, with the aim of securing and expanding the supportive network that has developed through decades of musicological research. Specifically, the project targets the refinement of collaborative goals, enhancing the infrastructure's connectivity through strategic cooperations with related projects and within the NFDI, defining roles, tasks, and processes in the future consortium, establishing legal frameworks, negotiation and decision-making structures, and finally, reviewing the existing structure as well as deepening integration into the international user community.

• DFG Programme: Cooperation and Networking (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Klaus Pietschmann; Professorin Dr. Barbara Wiermann