Digital indexing of historical vertical aerial photographs

Challenges of a source genre between photography and cartography

Duration

2017 - 2017

Funding body

Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)

https://www.bmbf.de/

Applicant

Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung – Institut der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft

https://www.herder-institut.de/

https://www.facebook.com/HerderInstitut

https://www.instagram.com/herder_institut/

Project manager

PD Dr. Christian Lotz GND

christian.lotz@herder-institut.de

Researcher

Dariusz Gierczak GND

dariusz.gierczak@herder-institut.de

Laufzeit

2017 - 2017

Vertical aerial photographs are an outstanding source for numerous historical subdisciplines, from environmental history and economic history to the history of knowledge and cartography. The Herder Institute has around 8,000 vertical aerial photographs of Central and Eastern Europe from the 1940s. A detailed planning phase is necessary for the digitization and in-depth cataloging of the collection, as the questions posed by the interested historical subdisciplines vary greatly and vertical aerial photographs represent an “intermediate form” between photographs and maps as a source genre.

For this reason, standards for image sources and map sources must be observed when collecting and indexing metadata. The digitization concept developed by the Herder Institute's map collection therefore serves not only to prepare for the digitization of its own holdings, but also to discuss the potential and challenges of indexing other (similar) holdings on the basis of existing standards.

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