Die Topothek in kirchlichem Rahmen präsentiert von Archivar Johannes Leitner © Erich Foltinowsky

A / Vienna: Conference: Protestant remembrance

As part of the “evangelical:remembering” conference, which took place in Vienna from April 19 to 21, archivist Johannes Leitner presented the Topotheque of the Evangelical Church in Austria, which he has built into a comprehensive digital archive over the past few years. With almost 8,000 entries and an extensive catalog of topics and search terms, this Topotheque is a wonderful example of consistent keywording. In the sequence of the lectures, the presentation of the Topotheque was embedded in the presentation of three Protestant museums and thus a sign that the electronic collection can play a very important role in the mechanism of memory work. In particular, the possibility of digitally combining dislocated archived hits into a search term and the quick access to content without having to go to the original justify the use of a Topotheque as a finding aid across the various analogue collections. For easy understanding, Johannes Leitner has created a concise explanatory video for visitors to a Topotheque, which can be seen here.