FIZ Karlsruhe and the State Archives of Baden-Württemberg start a project for digital information supply

Karlsruhe, February 8, 2021 – In Germany, archival sources are distributed among a large number of different institutions. Accessing these sources often poses considerable challenges to both research and interested laypersons. Small and medium-sized archives in particular, for example in cities and municipalities, often lack the necessary IT infrastructure for digital recording and management as well as for presenting their holdings on the Internet. The EEZU system (Einfaches Erschließungs- und Zugriffssystem - Easy Indexing and Access System) is designed to enable these archives to digitally capture sources, manage digitized material and make it available to a wide range of users via information portals such as the German Digital Library (DDB) and Archive Portal-D without incurring high financial costs.

To this end, the State Archives of Baden-Württemberg and FIZ Karlsruhe are developing web-based, intuitive software with a built-in export function for data transfer with the German Digital Library. An access platform enables the delivery of digitized data in different resolutions. In addition, there are interfaces to long-term archiving systems such as DIMAG or RADAR. The aim is to make much better use of the information and services offered by archives - both by the interested public and for scientific purposes.
With EEZU, for the first time an archiving system consistently relies on Linked Open Data, i.e. freely available, linked and structured data on the web as a technical basis. At the same time, a new international standard, Records in Context (RIC), is adopted and implemented. By automatically recognizing persons, places and events, for example, and linking them to norm data identifiers, archivists are supported in creating high-quality indexing information. Technologically, this goes far beyond previous offerings and is based on research results from FIZ Karlsruhe’s Information Service Engineering (ISE) unit.
The project will run for two years.  Once the development work is finished, EEZU will be available as open source software. In addition, FIZ Karlsruhe will offer a hosted service at charge.

More information is available on our website.

Scientific contact:
Matthias Razum, Head e-Research
matthias.razum [at] fiz-karlsruhe.de (matthias[dot]razum[at]fiz-karlsruhe[dot]de)

FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure is a not-for-profit limited liability company. As one of the large information infrastructure institutions in Germany, we have the public mission to provide researchers and scientists with scientific in-formation and to develop the appropriate products and services. To this end, we edit and index large data volumes from manifold sources, develop and operate innovative information services and e-research solutions, and carry out research projects of our own. FIZ Karlsruhe is a member of the Leibniz Association which comprises more than 95 institutions involved in research activities and/or the development of scientific infrastructure. During the start-up phase of the NFDI, FIZ Karlsruhe, together with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is the supporting institution of the NFDI Directorate for an interim period. For more information, please visit www.fiz-karlsruhe.de/en

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FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure
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