EthnoArc - Linked European Archives for Ethnomusicological Research
The EthnoArc system is enhancing access to scientific collections of traditional popular music by supporting digital representation, multi-archive retrieval and comparative research.
- Project type: STREP (Specific Targeted Research Project)
- Start date: 1 September 2006
- Duration: 24 months
- EU funding: € 706 000
- Number of partners: 7
- Project coordinator: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin e.V.
- Contact: Dr Katharina Biegger
Background
Europe's ethnomusicological archives, some dating back to the 19th century, are holding rich repositories of orally transmitted cultural expressions. The ever growing interest for local and regional culture by researchers, by educational bodies, but also by local and regional broadcast networks and the creative industries, make the contents of these holdings attractive for wider circles of society.
Typically, an ethnographic field collection consists of a multi-format, unpublished body of materials gathered and organised by an anthropologist, folklorist, ethnomusicologist, or other cultural researcher. The collection may contain materials from a wide range of formats, including sound recordings, drawings, photographs, field notes, and correspondence.
Electronic representations of ethnographic collections make it possible for researchers to explore the various resources without risking to damage originals and in the context of other materials. However, the use of existing digital archives is limited by the fact that they were developed independently and apply different metadata structures, making comparisons of data almost impossible.
Achievements of the project
Against this background, the primary achievements of the EhnoArc project were to define and implement a system that supports
- the digital representation of rich and complex information,
- searching and research of source materials, even if stored in different and differently structured archives,
- various types of scientific approaches, such as sociological, ethnological, ethnomusicological, psychological or linguistic approaches.
The project has also built a 'production chain' for digitising content and entering metadata in order to show the capability of the system to handle legacy data and to demonstrate the potential of richer, more complex metadata for advanced research purposes.
By involving expert scholars in the definition of parameters and in the evaluation process, it has been ensured that the technical solutions fit the needs of the archive users and allow for a wide range of research questions.