Creating digital access to historical sources: a joint project presentation of the DFG-project “Qalamos” and the project “IN_CONTEXT: Colonial Histories and Digital Collections”

In this joint project presentation, Christoph Rauch, will introduce the online portal Qalamos, which provides direct access to metadata and digitised copies of Oriental manuscript collections in Germany. The talk gives an overview of workflows, standardization processes (e.g. authority data, metadata) and discusses challenges of developing a platform in collaboration with various partners. Larissa Schmid will be presenting  the project “IN_CONTEXT: Colonial Histories and Digital Collections”, which seeks to secure funding for the digitisation of historical colonial sources and for devising a virtual platform for the study of colonial histories.

Christoph Rauch studied Arabic and Islamic studies at Leipzig (M.A.) and holds a M.A. in Information and Library Science from the Humboldt Universität Berlin. Since 2007, he has been working at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, where he was appointed Head of the Oriental Department in 2010. Here he initiated and coordinated several projects in the field of digitisation of Oriental manuscripts as well as conferences and exhibitions related to the collection. He is Head of the Qalamos project team.

Larissa Schmid has a background in History, Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science. She was a research fellow in the project "Cultural Exchange in a Time of Global Conflict: Colonials, Neutrals and Belligerents during the First World War" at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient. Currently, she is project coordinator in the DFG project "Qalamos". Since 2023, she is leading the project "IN_CONTEXT: Colonial Histories and Digital Collections“.