The Archive Portal-D - Section-specific access to the archival information of the German Digital Library

The freely accessible sub-portal of the German Digital Library at www.archivportal-d.de enables comprehensive and free research in Germany's archives. 

Why an archive portal?

Until recently, searching for archival records could be quite tedious. Scholars, people interested in history and family researchers often had to contact a large number of archives to find out whether there was material in an archive that was interesting and relevant to them, such as documents, photographs or maps. And that was just the beginning. If anything had actually survived the test of time, the travels began criss-crossing the republic to consult the sources on the spot.

In 2012, an alliance of archives and research institutions set out to facilitate access to archival material. The State Archives of Baden-Württemberg, the Marburg School of Archives, the State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Saxon State Archives, FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure and the DDB jointly developed Archive Portal-D, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and thus realised the first sector-specific application with data from the German Digital Library. With more than 25 million records, the Archive Portal-D today offers all researchers, history enthusiasts and family researchers low-threshold access to archive records and a helpful tool for research.

The special features of archival access

Archive Portal-D provides and presents contact information of archives, indexing information such as overviews of holdings and finding aids as well as digitised archive material for research. It is possible to search across all available finding aids of the participating archives and to display hit lists and digitised material from archival institutions of various categories. In this way, comparative research can be carried out easily and quickly in the holdings of several institutions.

The user interface of Archive Portal-D provides a professional presentation of tectonics, classification and digitised archival material and at the same time offers search options specifically tailored to subject-specific requirements. A number of personalised functionalities, such as the watch lists, as well as the print and download function and extensive service information for the use of archival material complete the offer.

New developments around the Archive Portal-D

In addition to general searches for archival records, the Archive Portal-D has also offered thematic access since the end of 2020. In the so-called thematic portals within Archive Portal-D, archival material on a specific topic, e.g. the Weimar Republic, is made available, sorted according to certain categories and keywords. The live launch of the thematic portal Reparations is planned for summer 2022.

 

Links

Website of the Archive Portal-D

The Archive Portal-D on Twitter

Report on the development of the Archive Portal-D at the State Archives of Baden-Württemberg