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Project of The Month january 2002
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The Cultural Database Gathering our Past on the Web
By Naia Bang / Texthuset
Now the past unites with the brave new digital world. This happens with the launch of the Cultural Historic Query Database on February 25. |
The name covers a pilot project that will make it easier for everyone to dig up the past of North Jutland - across museums, archives and libraries. Imagine a 9th grade school class from Gistrup doing a history project on the newspapers in Aalborg During the Twentieth Century – about the system with four newspapers, competing newspapers and mergers. Old newspapers, photos from the editorial staff, letter cases and setting with lead types, a typewriter, details on the best known editors… It can all be found at the libraries and various museums and archives. But with the ABM Cultural Database, the Cultural Search Database of North Denmark under the Digital North Denmark the school class – and along with them anyone else with an interest – will be able to find answers on a shared database.
- We have decided to name the new database the Cultural Historic Query Database of North Denmark, and it is a pilot project created in a collaboration between three archives, three museums, the North Denmark Regional Library, the Board of Museums of the County of North Jutland, the Department of Infants and Cultural Affairs, and the municipality of Aalborg, reports Jens Topholm, the acting keeper of the City Archives of Aalborg, who is the administrative project manager of the ABM Cultural Database. And he develops further:
- The various institutions have rather varying ways and approaches in recording their collections. This project carries us beyond the barriers of differing practices and recording methodologies, and we can perform queries across several collections normally not "designed" for this type of queries.
Reaching More Users
The past as such is quite a bulky entity: The City Archives of Aalborg in Arkivstræde alone holds five million pictures and 6,5 kilometers of documents. To those with lots of time on their hands each archive box is a virtual treasure chest.
But many of us do not have that kind of time available. Others are not in the routine of searching in the cultural institutions, so a lot more people could benefit from the archives, the libraries and the museums than those who actually do. And the hope is to reach those potential users via www.noks.dk, as the new database is called on the web.
- No doubt there is a great communicational and pedagogical benefit in merging the data from archives, museums and libraries in one database. In the same go we make a load of material available that hasn't been so far, explains Rasmus Falk Mikkelsen, who is the technical project manager of the Cultural Historic Query Database of North Denmark. |
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No matter if your are located in Melbourne or Nørresundby, it will now be easier to dig down in the past of North Jutland. This is a fact as of February 25 with the opening of the homepage www.noks.dk
Photo: Jesper Dall, PP
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Breathing Life into the Past
A test-version of the database has just been run. For example you can make a search on C.W. Obel and find information on the tobacco industry of Aalborg, a short film from the 1920'ies about working in the tobacco industry – and a tape recorded interview with a worker who tells us what working in the tobacco factories was like in the early 20th century. Likewise information related to the Second World War has been gathered, and in a new, fascinating and lifelike way anyone interested can learn more about e.g. the various resistance groups in the Aalborg area.
On the main page various stories and themes are offered, and those who want to search for specific matters are helped as they go along. And the Query system is both logic and easy to use.
- When the past gets live, it gets relevant and interesting. So no doubt, a lot of people will benefit from the www.noks.dk, Jens Topholm points out.
Once the www.noks.dk is launched the users will be enabled to retrieve information in a lot of ways and combinations across institutions and facilities - from the City Archives of Aalborg, the Bangsbo Museum and Archives, the Historical Museum of Vendsyssel and Archive, the Historical Museum of Aalborg, and the North Denmark Regional Library. Both Jens Topholm and Rasmus Falk Mikkelsen are convinced that the pilot project under Digital North Denmark is just a beginning.
- There is just so much scope in this. Once the system has been created, it is just a matter of filling in. In principle nothing is stopping all the cultural institutions of the region from enrolling in the database.
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Once it has proved its value by being used, I have no doubt that several parties will be interested in joining us. So the next problem to solve will be how to maintain and update the system on a relatively low budget, explains Jens Topholm.
Read more about the North Denmark Cultural Historic Query Database here |
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