The digital infrastructure is designed to exploit the potential offered by digital humanities for collection-related research, allowing scholars to access the collections at the three institutions and pursue new research questions. The data integrated in this research environment comprise not only the central digital holdings of the three institutions but also research data from the MWW projects relating to those holdings. For the first time it will be possible to present high-quality scholarly data on a shared platform.

To achieve this, the metadata belonging to the holdings or those yet to be generated is integrated into the virtual research centre and thus amalgamated. Digital archives, libraries and museums are of limited use to scholars unless objects are described and structured by means of metadata. For this reason, the research project concentrated on data-modelling the entities that were to be described with metadata, as well as developing and applying metadata standards for the MWW. This was accompanied by the creation of a conceptual model or ontology for the MWW metadata content. The aim in doing so is not only to establish the formats at the individual institutions but also to make them permanently usable and adaptable. It is also central to the project that the research partners implement the standards and models developed.

Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF) within the framework of the MWW
Duration: March 2014 – February 2019
Project participant: Timo Steyer (team member)