The year 2014 is set to remind people around the globe of the outbreak of the First World War one hundred years ago. Over recent years many cultural institutions across Europe have been transferring film footage and handwritten and printed material onto digital media. Countless books, photos, films, posters, manuscripts and song lyrics are now available online. On 30^th and 31^st January 2014, to mark the centenary, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) will host a conference entitled “Unlocking Sources – The First World War Online & Europeana” (www.unlocking-sources.eu/).

This two-day international symposium will bring together research, teaching, history and education professionals in a discussion of the possibilities afforded, and limits imposed, by digital windows on the First World War. The participants will comment from their respective positions on advances made in this area over recent years.

The conference will focus on questions relating to the use of digital sources. How can digital material best be incorporated into research work and teaching activities at all levels? What role can the various forms of online activities play in ‘digital humanities’? What ideas emerge for the purveyance of history in museums and the media? What strengths and weaknesses can be identified in both established and cutting-edge web facilities? Alongside these searching panel discussions exposure will be given to innovative projects that are using digital means to address the WWI theme. The conference programme can be viewed on http://www.europeana-collections-1914-1918.eu/unlocking-sources/programme/

On 30^th and 31^st January (the Collection Days) interested persons are also invited to bring their personal memorabilia to the Staatsbibliothek and have them digitised and placed online.

In the run-up to the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of war the Europeana Collections 1914-1918 crowdsourcing project is gathering private memorabilia and anecdotes from across Europe and making them accessible to the general public in an online archive. Over 5,000 contributions including approx. 60,000 digitised items are already on display on the www.europeana1914-1918 website. Before and after the Collection Days individuals may register on this site and add their own digital images and information to the online archive.

Information on organisers and sponsors

The “Europeana Collections 1914-1918”, “European Film Gateway 1914 – EFG1914” and “Europeana 1914-1918” projects have amassed hundreds of thousands of items from film archives, museums, libraries and private individuals. These have been digitised and stored in the Europeana virtual library, making the material freely available to the general public online for the very first time.

To mark this online roll-out the Berlin State Library, Berlin’s Humboldt University, the Deutsches Filminstitut, Facts & Files and the Europeana Foundation  have organised this conference in Berlin.

The project is supported by Image Access and funded by the Secretary of State for Culture and Media following a resolution passed by the German Bundestag.

The Europeana Collections 1914-1918 and EFG1914 projects receive partial funding from the European Community within the framework of the Information and Communications Technology Policy Support Programme as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme (http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp).

Attendees can register for the conference on http://unlocking-sources.eventbrite.com/. Further information on the programme and the Collection Days is available on www.unlocking-sources.eu/.