Cordial Thanks and All the Best for 2022

Dear Sir or Madam,
Dear Partners, Friends and Supporters of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library),
Dear Colleagues,

Who would have thought that we are looking back at another "pandemic year"? We still see each other more frequently at video conferences than in the office, mainly meet at digital presentations and not at 'real' workshops or congresses. In the home office, we try out new things, are happy when they succeed and sometimes, we also fail – all this is part of 2021.

At the end of this year, we devoted ourselves to a 'contemplative action' combining home office and digital media and discovered what we were looking for in historical baking recipes: nearly 2,000 entries on baking book or over 500 on Lebkuchen (gingerbread) inspired us to delve into the „durch vieljährige Erfahrung bewährte Anleitung[en] zur Bereitung aller Arten von Speisen für Gesunde, Kranke und Genesende" ("through many years proven Instruction(s) for the Preparation of All Types of Food for the Healthy, the Sick and the Convalescent") (Vienna 1825), proven through many years of experience, to adhere to the „Vorschriften zu allerlei Koch- und Bakwerk" ("Regulations for All Types of Cooking and Baking") (Tübingen 1796) and to leaf through the „Deutsches Backpulver-Backbuch" ("German Baking Powder Baking Book") (Baden 1891). This resulted in „Ordinaire Mandelberge“, similar kinds of Pfefferkuchen (gingerbread) and „Gewöhnliches Weihnachtsgebäck“ ("Ordinary Christmas Biscuits").

Albeit historical baking recipes can be tested for their suitability in the 21st century, the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek offers connoisseurs of the art of confectionery even more possibilities: For example, a song from the Splendour Codex of Count Hugo von Montfort (Steiermark, 1414/1415) served us as a model for the decoration of a particularly large Lebkuchen.

The proof of all of this – including the conversion of pounds, „Loth“ and „Quintlein“ into contemporary weights can be found in our video „Ordinaire Hippen“ after the „Vollkommener Conditor“ ("Perfect Confectioner") (1822).

Developing new formats and media that convey culture in an interactive and participatory way largely defined the past year as it is one of the goals of our project “Nutzerorientierte Neustrukturierung der Deutschen Digitalen Bibliothek” (“User-Oriented Restructuring of the German Digital Library", which is funded by the German government's NEUSTART KULTUR program. With new editorial offerings, further intuitive or thematic introductions will allow better user-oriented access to the rich cultural heritage –our new home page already provides a first idea of this. The project also has about two million euros available for digitalization projects. The great response from cultural and knowledge institutions show how great their need is and that digitalization is playing a central role for more and more institutions. We are excited to see the new collections, which will be made accessible as part of the project!

We also received positive feedback with the Deutsches Zeitungsportal (German Newspaper Portal), which was  launched in October and provides centralized, media-specific access to historical newspapers from over three centuries. Some 4.5 million newspaper pages in around 600,000 editions from nine libraries are online and can be searched, amongst others, by title or place of distribution, or by any keyword. .

Also new is the online portal Collection Items from Colonial Contexts, which initially makes available selected collections from 25 pilot institutions within the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Developed as a prototype, the portal is to be expanded in the future into a comprehensive central publication platform for information on collection items from colonial contexts in German cultural and knowledge institutions.

If you prefer contemplation to action, we would recommend a visit to our more than 120 virtual exhibitions: heaven's paths, book art, crumble cake – we are sure that you will gain a captivating insight into our rich and diversified cultural heritage as our free service for curating exhibitions remains popular among cultural institutions!

For one year, the Archivportal-D has been offering a new editorial format in the form of the monthly Blickpunkt (Focus on), which prepares archive material – reform pedagogy, women's suffrage and the League of Nations are just a few of the interesting topics that are worth discovering, not just for those interested in archives.

Vogelkieker, Numisma, Ephemeral – these are some of the names of the teams that came together at the regional editions of the Coding da Vinci cultural hackathon in 2021, making data and culture dance. Old emergency money is turned into a work of art by processing it as NFT – Non-Fungible Token, historical seals are revived with the 3D printer or pantalas are designed: mandalas made of cell and plant structures. Culture and technology meet here in an excellent way.

Over and Over Again: Cordial Thanks!

It is our more than 600 data partners consisting of archives, libraries, museums, institutions for monument preservation, media libraries and other knowledge institutions from all over Germany that make their digital collections visible online via the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and, with now more than 40 million accessible datasets, provide eloquent evidence of the richness and diversity of our cultural heritage. We would like to cordially thank everyone from cultural and knowledge institutions of all sections since your commitment forms the basis for the further development of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.

We would also like to cordially thank all our partners, friends and supporters of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, who have accompanied us on our journey with recognition, praise and criticism.

We would like to especially thank the employees of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek: Our good and trusting cooperation has supported us this year, despite the pandemic – thank you all very much.

All the best to you, your team and your family – health, confidence and energy for the coming year. We look forward to the next projects with you – take good care of yourself until then and – as always – stay with us.

Your Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek