In the NFDI4Memory position paper „Damit wir auch zukünftig eine Vergangenheit haben – Für eine dem digitalen Zeitalter angemessene Ausbildung und Lehre in Archivwesen und Geschichtswissenschaft“, the signatories warn of an impending ‘digital dark age’. This could drastically limit the ability of future historians to reliably write the history of our present. This is because, in the transition from the analogue to the digital age, digital documents are not being transferred to the archives. The reasons for this are manifold, ranging from misunderstood data protection to the short-lived nature of social media. At the same time, artificially generated documents and information are already misleading many people today. This creates a great need for action in archival training and history teaching. The signatories draw the attention of funding bodies at state and federal level to the necessary increases in funding.
The position paper is an important outcome of the first 4Memory Summer School. In September 2024, around 30 experts from the fields of archiving and digital history gathered in Stuttgart at the invitation of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives. In line with the motto of the event series, ‘Linking Data | Linking Communities,’ the focus was on joint discussions about digital methods and use cases at the interface between the two communities. With representatives from research, memory institutions and research infrastructures, the event brought together both producers and users of historical data.
The next Summer School took place in 2025 at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association – in Marburg. It was dedicated to the topic ‘The White Elephant in the Room. Datenqualitätsmanagement in historisch arbeitenden Fächern’ and was aimed at Master’s students, doctoral candidates and practitioners with initial experience in the field of data quality management. This year, the Bavarian State Library and, in 2027, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam are inviting participants to the ‘Linking Data | Linking Communities’ Summer School. The format thus continues to offer an important platform for exchange and cooperation between the various communities in the historical humanities.
Position paper:
Summer School:
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