Digitization and Indexing of the “Kabinette des Wissens” Recordings
In a research project undertaken over several years by the Humboldt-Universität’s Hermann von Helmholtz Center for Cultural Techniques parts of the Museum of Medical History, the University Library’s portrait collection and outstanding works of graphic art, all the exhibits in the major exhibition “Theatrum naturae et artis. Wunderkammern des Wissens,” parts of the Zoological Teaching Collection, important works of graphic art from the Museum of Natural History, and large parts of the Sound Archives documentation were systematically recorded and digitized for the “Kabinette des Wissens” database. The initiators of this undertaking were the art historian Horst Bredekamp and the mathematician Jochen Brüning. Until 2007 the recording and digitization project was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
The Sound Archives were included in the project in 1997. By the end of the VW Foundation funding the music ethnologist Jürgen Mahrenholz had digitized 6,400 recordings made on shellac records, recorded them in the “Kabinette des Wissens” database and made them researchable online.
The enormous increase in use of the Sound Archives since 2005 is due mainly this availability and visibility of the recordings. Recording of the extensive written accompanying material and the restoration and digitization of other media in the Sound Archives, such as the post-war recording tapes, has so far only partly been accomplished. The university management’s promise to make the project permanent has not been kept.