Digitization and indexing of the atlas of German folklore archive (DigErAdV)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ove Sutter
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 558245029

The aim of the proposed project is the digitization and indexing of the Atlas of German Folklore (AdV) archive and the creation of an online database in which the archival records can be georeferenced. With around 4 million response cards, the AdV archive contains one of the largest ethnographic data collections in Europe on rural ways of working and living, beliefs, social and cultural norms, gender roles and popular and oral narratives for the period between 1900 and 1935, which is unique. It has been in the care of the former Department of Folklore Studies since 1968 and the Chair of Empirical Cultural Studies and Cultural Anthrology at the University of Bonn since 2022. The archive is kept in the rooms of the Department of Empirical Cultural Studies and Cultural Anthropology at the Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bonn. The latest technological developments in digitization and the establishment of centers for digital humanities are creating new opportunities for the source-critical use of data for empirical cultural analysis and for cultural and social science research in general. Smaller amounts of data have already been digitized as part of recent research projects by international scholars from related disciplines such as linguistics and sociology. This confirmed the need for comprehensive digitization of the archive in order to fully exploit its potential. A working group has therefore been formed with the common goal of comprehensively digitizing the archive for the purpose of future research projects. This offers Empirical Cultural Studies the unique opportunity to benefit from an interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge initiated within the framework of this working group. The differentiated accessibility of the material in the online database with georeferencing of the data to be developed in the project will make the archive accessible for research based on the digital analysis of comprehensive historical data sets. The concentrated digitization of the response cards and the publication of the data in an open access database under the direction of the Chair of Empirical Cultural Studies and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bonn in cooperation with the Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH) also ensures the long-term technical security and maintenance as well as the scientific and source-critical contextualization of the database.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)