Culture and memory in the Digital Age: Europeana.eu

Europeana is an online resource for digitized cultural materials from all across Europe. More than 2,000 institutions have contributed to Europeana and the collections continue to grow. The history of this online source is an interesting one. In 2005, former president of France, Jacques Chirac, along with six Heads of State from across Europe, called for the creation of a European digital library in a letter to the European Commission. The project has developed and flourished over time, encompassing different aspects of information technology.

The Europeana Foundation is the leading body of the entire project, which includes the digital library at europeana.eu. The Foundation is also head of the Linked Open Data project. Several countries are already participating in the linked open data project by providing data sets of raw data. These are available for anyone to use. The project will undoubtedly continue to grow, and more data will be made available over time.

There are several ways to explore the digital library using the main Europeana search portal. Images, text, sounds and video make up the available items and material, and extensive metadata is included with each entry. Subject or descriptor headings are linkable, so one item will lead the scholar to other similar items with just one click. Many of the descriptors are in English, as well as in the language of the originating institution.  Another unique feature of Europeana is the collection of online exhibitions.

Each exhibition has a theme, and all images or sound files included are annotated in detail right on the page. Certain exhibitions are hosted by partner institutions, while most are compiled by Europeana, which uses its collections provided by institutions of cultural memory from across Europe. 

Europeana is also very active on social media sites, including Pinterest. This is the perfect forum for Europeana's content, as it has included tons of images, and organized them by theme on different boards. You do not need a Pinterest account access these boards. 

Finally, Europeana recently launched a project called "Europeana 1989: We made history". Working with HistoryPin, an online community where people can "pin" images to certain places on a map, Europeana's newest project is a crowd-sourcing endeavor. People are invited to contribute their pictures and stories about where they were in 1989, what life was like and what was happening at the time. The project only launched in early June 2013 and is growing at quite the pace. Consider exploring the contributions, or adding something yourself!

Polish digital photo archive

One of the types of materials frequently requested by patrons, but not always easy to locate, are photographs of particular historical persons, events or locations. Polish non-profit organization, Ośrodek Karta, which is dedicated to preserving historical materials. Among other initiatives, the organization is dedicated to digitizing its collection of over 160,000 photographs illustrating the social history of Poland and East-Central Europe in the 20th century. Although not the entire corpus has been made available online yet, the archive’s website it is well worth visiting. Some of the photographs in the collection have been donated by private persons, others are works of renowned Polish photojournalists. The range of the subjects covered is broad, from early 20th century pictures of the activities of the Warsaw Cycling Society, to portraits of the KOR and Solidarity leadership. The best represented, however are photographs showing everyday life in the Polish People’s Republic, Polish Armed Forces in the West and, perhaps most importantly ,the photographic evidence of the life of the Polish Gulag prisoners, as well as photos associated with the Katyn massacre. A separate, very interesting collection, are samizdat postcards produced during the explosion of the Solidarity movement and the martial law. One hopes that the cooperation of the archive with its sponsors continues and more of its unique collections become available electronically. To reach the archive use the URL: http://www.karta.org.pl/archiwa_i_bazy_danych/Archiwum_Fotografii/49

Digitized Indices at Vostochnaia Literatura (srednevekovye istoricheskie istochniki vostoka i zapada)

Vostochnaia Literatura (srednevekovye istoricheskie istochniki vostoka i zapada) = Oriental Literature (medieval historical sources of the East and West). Bibliograficheskie Ukazateli Starting from the main Vostochnaia Literatura website, researchers can explore the digitized content by selecting "Ukazateli"(left navigation bar, under "katalogi"). Using Djvu, "a digital document format," the content managers have posted the following indices (Note: this page does not contain full-text articles) : Ukazatel' izdanii Arkheograficheskoi komissii (1836-1918 gg); Vestnik Evropy (Ukazatel' za 1802-1830 gg); Vostochnyi sbornik, izdavaemyi bibliotekoi im. Saltykova-Shchedrina (vyp. 1-6); Drevniaia Rossiikaia bibliofika (Parts: 1-20); Zapiski Odesskogo obshchestva istorii i drevnostei (Tom I-XXX); Sbornik Imperatorskogo Russkogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva za 1846-1916 gg; Sbornik Imperatorskogo Russkogo Istoricheskogo obshchestva za 1867-1916 gg; Spisok izdanii Imperatorskogo Moskovskogo arkheologicheskogo obshchestva 1865-1913 gg; Istorik-marksist za 1922-1941 gg; Istoricheskii arkhiv za 1919-2001 gg; Istoricheskie zapiski (No. 1-40; No. 1-110); Krasnyi arkhiv za 1922-1941 gg; Izdania Obshchestva Istorii i Drevnostei pri Moskovskom Universitete; Russkaia beseda za 1856-1860 gg; Russkaia starina za 1870-1884 gg; Russkii arkhiv (1863-1892 and 1863-1908 gg); Russkii vestnik za 1856-1864 gg; Russkii istoricheskii zhurnal za 1917-1922 gg; Russkoe proshloe (1991-1998); Slavianskii arkhiv (Slavianskoe istochnikovedenie) za 1958-1965 gg; Srednie veka (No. 1-50); Frantsuzskii ezhegodnik (1958-1988 gg); Khristianskoe chtenie (1821-1870 gg); Chteniia v Obshchestve Istorii i Drevnostei Rossiiskikh (1882-1887 and 188-1894 gg). In order to view these digitized indices, users will need to download the Djvu Browser Plug-in (Note: DjVu Browser Plug-ins are fee, see Downloads). Without the Djvu format reader, researchers will be unable to download digitized materials. An excellent tool for information professionals and researchers to verify and complete their citations. Please contact the Slavic Reference Service if you require further assistance.