Federal State of Brandenburg is continuing with the Coordination Office for the Digitisation of Cultural Assets on a permanent basis
In 2012 the Coordination Office Brandenburg-digital was established as a central point of contact for institutions in Brandenburg to support them in the digitisaton of cultural assets.
Since then the Coordination Office has provided a wide range of advice, information and impartation of knowledge. This includes training courses for dealing with online databases, advice on how to apply for financial assistance, but also support from the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture for developing new strategies for the long-term and sustainable digitisation of cultural assets in the State.
With the budget resolution of 2017/18 the Landtag (State Parliament) has now confirmed the government’s decision to continue with the Coordination Office on a permanent basis.
The Head of the Coordination Office, Ulf Preuß estimates: “Up to now about 30 digitisation projects have been successfully implemented with over 60 cooperation partners. The continuation now enables us to plan for the longer term, to support more institutions in their participation in cross-border offerings and to push ahead with the expansion of infrastructures and third-party funding.”
More than 80 archives, 140 libraries and 150 museums, as well as a large number of institutions run by volunteers, are dedicated to passing down cultural heritage in the Land Brandenburg. The challenge lies particularly in the areas of digitisation and digital presentation. Despite extremely diverse collections and holdings, the different institutions are working closely together here.
Under this cooperative approach, even smaller institutions will be able to use the existing technical infrastructure and specialist knowledge, for example to create their own digital presentation. Likewise, all institutions, regardless of their size, should be able to be integrated into the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library). One example for cooperation between cultural institutions of differing sizes is the project “Historische Stadtansichten aus dem Land Brandenburg” (Historical Cityscapes of the Land Brandenburg), led by the Potsdam Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte (Forum for Art and History) in cooperation with the Stadtmuseum Brandenburg an der Havel, (Brandenburg City Museum), the Museum im Frey-Haus (Frey House Museum) and the Museum in der Adler-Apotheke (Eagle Apothecary Museum) in Eberswalde. The aim of this project is to make the extensive vedute collections of the Land Brandenburg accessible to the public and to strengthen the existing commitment to digitisation. The museums provide insights here into the core areas of their collections to allow a further glance into the past.
The Coordination Office Brandenburg-digital is located at the Fachhochschule Potsdam (University of Applied Sciences) in the Faculty for Information Science. There are mutual benefits from this location: the Coordination Office can participate in topical questions in teaching and research and profits from the Faculty’s most recent findings. In addition, a digitization laboratory, which has already implemented and supported a large number of projects, is available within the scope of this cooperation.
The second Information Day of Brandenburg-digital will take place on 13th September 2017.
Further information on the Coordination Office:
Fachhochschule Potsdam
Koordinierungsstelle Brandenburg-digital
Postfach 60 06 08
14406 Potsdam
Brandenburg’s digitisation strategies can be read in detail in the second volume of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek’s publication series “Kulturelles Erbe in der digitalen Welt” (Cultural Heritage in the Digital World), published in September 2016. For the first time the collective volume “Föderale Vielfalt – Globale Vernetzung” (Federal Diversity – Global Interconnection) provides a more comprehensive overview of the activities and strategies of the individual Federal States in Germany to impart and link cultural heritage. All contributions can be downloaded online here free of charge.
(2016) Preuß, Ulf: Brandenburg.digital. In: Föderale Vielfalt - Globale Vernetzung. Strategien der Bundesländer für das kulturelle Erbe in der digitalen Welt. Hrsg.: v. Ellen Euler u. Paul Klimpel. Schriftenreihe: »Kulturelle Erbe in der digitalen Welt«. Bd. 2 Hamburg University Press. Seiten 52-69.
[PDF as Download // in German]
Link to the article (PDF) // in German
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.15460/ddb.2.168
Homepage and Index teaser: "Ansicht von Potsdam", Berlinische Galerie (CC0 1.0 Universell - Public Domain Dedication)