The Heritage Studies research on documentary heritage lies at the intersection of cultural sciences, humanities and information science. It focuses on the use of digital technology for the preservation, dissemination and accessibility of cultural goods and cultural heritage.
Documentary heritage is being dealt with in the context of the UNESCO Programme “Memory of the World” (MoW) and it is considered one of the three most important programmes for the protection of heritage, along with world heritage and intangible cultural heritage.
With this Programme, important documents from all areas of life are appreciated, enabling people to form collective memories of history and thereby strengthen their collective identities. The research concerning the MoW Programme deals with questions of digitalisation, long-term preservation and sustainable access, and with the cultural consequences of the use of information technologies. Thus, the research of IHS in this area aims at an interdisciplinary cross-linking of cultural sciences and humanities with information science.
The development of this research field, in particular the focus on the MoW Programme, is another novum of the IHS since so far MoW has not been implemented sustainably in either research or dissemination. The first scientific publication on the MoW Programme is the one that has been published in 2019 within the Series Heritage Studies of the IHS, by Ray Edmondson, Lothar Jordan and Anca Claudia Prodan.
Image: „Nebra Scheibe“ by Dbachmann. Licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nebra_Scheibe.jpg#/media/File:Nebra_Scheibe.jpg