Colonial contexts

Launch of online portal “Collections from Colonial Contexts”

The German Digital Library (DDB) has launched the online portal “Collections from Colonial Contexts” under the domain ccc.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de . This means that collection material from colonial contexts held by 25 institutions is now available online as part of the German Digital Library. Initially developed as a prototype, the portal is to be expanded in future to create an extensive central publication platform for information on collection items from colonial contexts held by German cultural and academic institutions.

The Ger­man Dig­i­tal Li­brary (DDB) has launched the on­line por­tal “Col­lec­tions from Colo­nial Con­texts” un­der the do­main ccc.deutsche-dig­i­tale-bib­lio­thek.de . This means that col­lec­tion ma­te­ri­al from colo­nial con­texts held by 25 in­sti­tu­tions is now avail­able on­line as part of the Ger­man Dig­i­tal Li­brary. Ini­tial­ly de­vel­oped as a pro­to­type, the por­tal is to be ex­pand­ed in fu­ture to cre­ate an ex­ten­sive cen­tral pub­li­ca­tion plat­form for in­for­ma­tion on col­lec­tion items from colo­nial con­texts held by Ger­man cul­tur­al and aca­dem­ic in­sti­tu­tions.

At its launch, the por­tal is avail­able in Ger­man and En­glish with in­for­ma­tion on around 8,000 pieces of ev­i­dence re­lat­ing to col­lec­tion items from colo­nial con­texts, though the de­scrip­tions are on­ly avail­able in Ger­man in most cas­es. The next step will be to clas­si­fy rel­e­vant da­ta al­ready con­tained in the Ger­man Dig­i­tal Li­brary as “col­lec­tion items from colo­nial con­texts” so as to en­sure this in­for­ma­tion can al­so be found on the por­tal in fu­ture. In the medi­um term, the por­tal will be of­fered in oth­er lan­guages and will in­clude da­ta from oth­er cul­tur­al and aca­dem­ic in­sti­tu­tions.

The new por­tal emerged from the “3-road strat­e­gy” on the doc­u­men­ta­tion and dig­i­tal pub­li­ca­tion of col­lec­tions from colo­nial con­texts held in Ger­many agreed on by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment, the Län­der and the mu­nic­i­pal um­brel­la or­ga­ni­za­tions in Oc­to­ber 2020. The aim of the “3-road strat­e­gy” is to en­sure the great­est pos­si­ble trans­paren­cy with re­gard to col­lec­tion items from colo­nial con­texts. The start-up phase of the por­tal be­ing launched to­day is be­ing fund­ed by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment from the bud­get for cul­ture and me­dia.

Links and in­for­ma­tion – “Col­lec­tions from Colo­nial Con­texts” por­tal:
Home page: https://ccc.deutsche-dig­i­tale-bib­lio­thek.de
Back­ground: https://ccc.deutsche-dig­i­tale-bib­lio­thek.de/con­tent/ue­ber-uns-ccc
Ques­tions and an­swers: https://ccc.deutsche-dig­i­tale-bib­lio­thek.de/con­tent/fra­gen-antworten