The Specialised Information Service Social- and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA), managed by the University Library of the Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin and the Data Service Center QualiService at the SOCIUM/University of Bremen, supports ethnological research. One of the aims of FID SKA is to establish QualiService at the SOCIUM/University of Bremen as a specialist repository for qualitative ethnological research data in order to be able to offer an adequate solution for the complex archiving requirements of the sometimes highly sensitive research data throughout Germany.

Duration:
01 March 2022 - 31 December 2024

Research Team:
Ulrich Heine (Head of project)
Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein (Head of project)
Ulrich Heine
Dr. Sabine Imeri
Dr. Michaela Rizzolli

The Specialised Information Service Social- and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA), managed by the University Library of the Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin and the Research Data Center Qualiservice at the SOCIUM/University of Bremen, supports ethnological research concentrating on four fields of work:

1. Through intensive science communication the FID SKA draws the academic community’s attention to infrastructural questions. Furthermore, it identifies both open issues and research needs that should be addressed by the research infrastructure. An equally diverse and deeply intertwined network of ethnological research and infrastructure is the ultimate goal.

2. The "user-oriented literature and information supply" shall provide digital and printed materials for researchers: This shall enable the use and reception of otherwise hardly accessible resources in Germany (Ethnographic Video Online 4, Anthropology Plus) on a broader basis and provide and document the central discourses in ethnological research permanently.

3. In the field of action "improved access to information and research / professional visibility", the expansion of the search index on EVIFA (www.evifa.de), the survey of ethnological literary estates distributed across German ethnological departments and institutions, and the collection of syllabi will enable new projects and academic exchange as well as improve the visibility of anthropological research. The bibliographical metadata for these surveys should also be fed into the EVIFA search index. The planned GND enrichment should improve the usability of the most wide-spread German-language authority file for ethnological purposes - such as the description of research data and estate materials, but also for automatic indexing.

4. With the continued engagement in the "support in research data management" the challenges of the increasing digitized ethnological research will be addressed in two ways: On the one hand the intensive exchange with ethnological academia will be continued and – based on the results of the first funding phase – best practice recommendations and position papers on the handling of research data will be adopted. On the other hand, sample data archiving in the Data Service Center QualiService will be tested in practice. The aim is to establish QualiService as a specialist repository for qualitative ethnological research data in order to be able to offer an adequate solution for the complex archiving requirements of the sometimes highly sensitive research data throughout Germany.

The project is being funded under the format Information Infrastructures for Research Data of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Further information can be found at www.qualiservice.org. 

Duration:
01 March 2022 - 31 December 2024

Research Team:
Ulrich Heine (Head of project)
Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein (Head of project)
Ulrich Heine
Dr. Sabine Imeri
Dr. Michaela Rizzolli

Project Type:
Third-party funded project