Topotheque
The topotheque (from ancient Greek τόπος topos “place, topic” and θήκη thékē “storage place”, “container” in the sense of “library”) is a virtual collection of images, maps, video and audio recordings with precise location, dating and keywording in Austria .
Goal setting
The aim of the topotheque is to make private historical material and knowledge visible to the general public with the participation of the population ( crowdsourcing ) and to make it accessible to science as an upstream field research.
The advantages of the project are the online availability and thus the non-location-specific use, the rapid expansion and general participation. This is done primarily with the collaboration of volunteers ( Citizen Scientists ) in a system that, despite its simplicity, also corresponds to the ISAD / G archive standard.
The individual topotheques are realized either by private individuals, associations or communities. So-called topothecarers maintain the material that is made available to them by the local population in the online portal. There is also the possibility for visitors to upload material themselves and to tag them.
The regional and / or thematic limitation creates a strong identification process with the user group. For many topotheques, the supply of material is promoted through events with the population.
history
The topotheque was created with an idea by Alexander Schatek. The initial consideration was to achieve a synopsis of the archival material of a collection by location and keyword. With the municipality of Breitenstein am Semmering , after the private topotheque Prater, the first publicly operated topotheque was created. A first prize in the project competition of the Lower Austrian Village and Urban Renewal opened the way to further publicly operated topotheques. The topotheque cooperates with regional and local organizations (regional managements) and is integrated into the network of archives (ICARUS). These collaborations are the basis for permanently securing the principle of the topotheque, which is to enable free access to local historical sources.
development
As of the beginning of 2017, a total of more than 110 individual topotheques are online. Even if the focus is on participating municipalities in Lower Austria - there were 100 in 2018 - the platforms are also used in other European countries such as Germany, but also Finland, Spain and Estonia.
Legal
The use of media, including those already in the public domain , must be negotiated individually with the respective rights holders; all content is excluded from downloading by a Javascript lock in the context menu in the web browser . In principle, content can be published under Creative Commons licenses, but this measure makes it technically impossible to use it in accordance with the license.
Movies
- ICARUS, April 13, 2016: The Topothek in Lower Austria
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Daniel Jeller: The archive document in the age of digital reproducibility . Vienna 2013 ( online [accessed on August 13, 2014]).
- ↑ Topothek Breitenstein
- ^ Lower Austrian village and urban renewal. Competition documentation 2011. (PDF) In: cms1.at. Retrieved August 13, 2014 .