In Germany, archival sources are distributed across a large number of different institutions. Accessibility to these sources is often associated with considerable challenges for research as well as for interested laypeople. 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 the presentation of their holdings on the Internet. The simple indexing and access system (EEZU) is intended to enable these archives to digitally record sources, manage digital copies and use information portals such as the German Digital Library (DDB) and the Archivportal-D to make it available to a broad group of users.
The Baden-Württemberg State Archives 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 digital copies to be delivered in different resolutions. There are also interfaces to long-term archiving systems such as DIMAG or RADAR. The aim is to make significantly better use of the information and services offered by archives – both by the interested public and for scientific purposes.
With EEZU, an archive system consistently relies on Linked Open Data for the first time, i.e., freely available, linked and structured data on the web as a technical basis. At the same time, Records in Context (RIC) is a new international standard that is being adopted and implemented.
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