The Creative Archives´ and Users´ Network

Prof. Dr. Patrick Sahle | Cologne Center for eHumanities (CCeH)

Funded by the Creative Europe Program, Category 2 – European Cooperation Projects

ithin the framework of the co:op project, the Cologne Center for eHumanities (CCeH) is cooperating with European archives and research institutions in order to preserve a common cultural heritage and to encourage the involvement of the general public. Activities include the further development of possibilities for the open source description of archival records as well as the expansion and intensifying of teaching at third level based on and with the help of digital archive portals such as Monasterium.
Monasterium is an open collaborative digital archive of charters from the Middle and Early Modern Ages. It has been developed and maintained at the University of Cologne since 2001. During this time, the portal has become one of the biggest virtual archives of this kind in the world, providing free access to digital images and descriptions of more than 600,000 charters from more than 150 European archives. The site is accessed by users from all over the world over 2,500 times per week.

In close collaboration with project partners, the CCeH is developing and enhancing digital applications and software to enable better access to and more effective interaction with the archive world for both academia and the general public. Due to multiple digitization measures, the platform is able to provide preservation and maintenance of archive materials. In addition to photographic representations of the archive documents, applications such as text editor and annotation tools mean that material can be further developed and files continually improved upon. Processing and editing options using indices and geolocations, the enhancement of the search function as well as the link to cartographical services mean that the platform provides comprehensive access to the diversity of European history in documents.       
_{Text: Franz Fischer, Stephan Makowski}