Folien zu einem Vortrag auf der internationalen Datenbanktagung – Conference on Digitization – der Archive von NS-Gedenkstätten, Dachau 23.-25. Oktober 2013

1. „The Third Order of Order“
Relational Archival Description and
Indexing as a Chance for
Defragmenting Contexts and
Collections
Karsten Kühnel

2. „In the third order of order, knowledge doesn’t have
a shape. There are just too many […] ways to make
sense of our world.”
(David Weinberger, Everything is Miscellaneous, 83)

3. Questions
1. Does the today model of fixed archival tectonics
mirror the historic reality?
2. What purpose can meet the digitisation of archival
material in the context of making descriptive
information accessible?
3. What should be the object(s) of archival description
and which standards should be used?
4. What is „relational archival description“ and what
does it to the users?

4. Classic fixed tectonics

5. Multiple meanings
„The meaning of a record, or of any other cultural
artefact is twofold: the meaning of the record and the
meaning for someone or for an occasion. The record is
full of meanings, some may be read in the record, or
inferred from the intertextuality that connects it to
other documents, others have to be deduced from the
context of archives‘ creation and use.“
(Eric Ketelaar: Archives and Archivists without Borders, 2010,
published 2012)

6. Contextualisation
Place for describung (de- and re-)contextualisations in classic finding aids (Findbüchern):
custodial history (Bestandsgeschichte)
[Quelle: http://eadiva.com/custodhist/]

7. Answer 1
The today common system of fixed tectonics
presents reality of contexts very limited.

8. Images / Aggregations

9. Answer 2
Digitisation in the today paradigmatically
changing culture of describing and using enables
structures and relationships of archives and
archival material to be visualised which could be
made visible hardly before.

10. ICA Metadata Model
EAC
Place
Event
EAD

11. Matching indexed data
together
Unique data from C/M 1 files
Unique data from T/D files
Type of Entity: Person
Type of Entity: Person
Authorized Form of Name: Albaglis, Elia
Authorized Form of Name: Albaglis, Ilia
Parallel Form of Name: Albaglis, Ilias
Parallel Form of Name: Albaglis, Ilias
Dates of Existence (Date of Birth): 1912-05-15
Dates of Existence (Date of Birth): 1912-05-15
History: Religion Jewish, Nationality Greek and/or
Stateless, Sex Male
Places: Smirne (Birth), Feldafing (Place of applying
for IRO assistance)
Names of Related Corporate Bodies, Persons and
Families: DP Camp Feldafing
Category of Relationship: Associative
History: Nationality Greek
Places: Smyrna (Birth)
Names of Related Corporate Bodies, Persons
and Families: CC Auschwitz
Category of Relationship: Associative
Description of Relationship: Prisoner No.
182440
Dates of Relationship: 1944-04-11 (entry)
Description of Relationship: Applicant for IRO
Assistance
Names of Related Corporate Bodies, Persons
and Families: CC Sachsenhausen
Dates of Relationship: 1948-08-30
Category of Relationship: Associative
[…]
Description of Relationship: Prisoner
Dates of Relationship: 1945-01-18 (entry)
[…]
Datenquelle: ITS, Bad Arolsen

12. CDOC CRM Metaschema
Quelle: Marlies Orlensky: Semantic interoperability in Europeana.
An examination of CIDOC CRM in digital cultural heritage documentation. In: TCDL Bulletin, Vol. 6/2, Fall 2010
(http://www.ieee-tcdl.org/Bulletin/v6n2/Olensky/olensky.html)

13. CIDOC/CRM as Mediator
Quelle: Lourdi, Papatheodorou, Dörr: Semantic Integration of Collection Description. In: D-Lib
Magazine, July/August 2009 (Volume 15 Number 7/8):
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july09/papatheodorou/07papatheodorou.html

14. Actually working portals
Archives Portal Europe
Europeana
www.archivesportaleurope.net
www.europeana.eu

15. Answer 3
Archival Description should ad minimum regard
archives, creators and other important agents.
The description profiles should be oriented on
the EAD and EAC standards.

16. Answer 4
Relational description is based on a system of
corresponding relationships between objects to be
described. It can be realised by authority files, facet
classifications or by implementing object-oriented
conceptual reference models (CRM).
Relational description doesn‘t need fixed classifications
or hierarchies. Finding aids can be generated on
demand by the users themselves according to selected
relevant kinds of relationships.

17. User-generated collections

18. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!