GLAM/Newsletter/April 2021/Contents/Germany report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XI, Issue IV, April 2021

Germany report

Northern Exposure for cultural heritage data

This month our cultural data hackathon Coding da Vinci was back again for its 11th edition, and our third online event - this time in our northernmost state, Schleswig Holstein. Partnering this time with the state Ministry responsible for digitalization (MELUND), amongst others, the local organisers at the Schleswig-Holstein State Library were able to to gather an incredible 52 open datasets from 34 participating institutions - from Plattdeutsch street names, to costal birdlife, to a 19th century register of criminals arrested in the Duchy of Holstein. The datasets inspired 19 idea pitches and the teams behind them now embark on a 7-week sprint phase to develop projects for submission to the final presentations on 11th June.

At the same time, we also awarded the third round of Coding da Vinci Stipendia. Since 2020 we have been able to award up to 4 Stipendia to the participants of each hackathon: 3 months of financial support and personalised coaching/training for the further development of hackathon projects, with the winners selected by a jury. This round the awardees included team members from the Coding da Vinci Niedersachsen 2020 projects FabSeal, a tool for reconstituting printable 3d models of stamps from photographs of wax seals, and Plantala, a web app for designing mandalas based on didactic botanical illustrations from the University of Göttigen. These stipendia are not only a great way to support some of the amazing people we meet through our hackathons to further explore the creative reuse of cultural heritage data, but also to explore opportunities and challenges for connecting these digital projects back to the institutions whose collections are represented.

Sketchnotes of ideas pitched at Coding da Vinci Schleswig Holstein 2021
Logo of project Plantala, Coding da Vinci Niedersachsen 2020
FabSeal: 3D-printed reconstructions of the original stamps from photos of a collection of traditional family seals