Online Access of Holocaust Documents: Ethical and Practical Challenges

Online Access of Holocaust Documents: Ethical and Practical Challenges 

International Workshop

within the Framework of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI II), supported by the European Commission

”Elie Wiesel” National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania - Bucharest

          The deadline for submission of proposals is 9 March 2017.  

We would like to invite you to an international workshop on Online Access of Holocaust Documents: Ethical and Practical Challenges to be held by the ”Elie Wiesel” National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, Bucharest, on 6-8 June 2017. 

This expert meeting is organized within the framework of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project (http://www.ehri-project.eu), supported by the European Commission. EHRI was launched in November 2010, and is dedicated to opening up collections related to Holocaust history within a web-based environment. The overall objective of the EHRI experts' workshops is to generate a creative exchange of knowledge and views between experts in various methodological subfields of Holocaust research and documentation.

Holocaust documentation is of great interest to the wide public: scholars, museum and archive professionals, educators, journalists, survivors and their families and the general public. Open access to this material has an important role in facilitating research and Holocaust education and in fostering a remembrance culture. 

In the digital and information age, the free flow of information is considered a key contributor in providing access to knowledge. The emerging field of Digital Humanities provides the tools for making information accessible, by bringing online documents and artifacts held by collection holding institutions. In order to enable online access of Holocaust documents, national and international legal policies, as well as institutional guidelines, need to be considered, and technical challenges need to be surmounted.

Providing online access to the archival information poses significant ethical challenges. Academic and broad public interest in this subject and the moral duty of giving access to Holocaust documents may come into conflict with certain unique aspects of Holocaust documentation: the sensitivity of the information exposed and the need to protect the victim`s privacy. If we put these documents online, can we control their use? What type of documents should we put online? Who should have access to it: professionals or the wide public as well? How do we deal with copyright issues and privacy protection? In addition, collection holders on the one hand, and Holocaust researchers and other potential users on the other, may have differing perspectives on the relevance of the available material and varying expectations from the provided access. 

Regarding the level of accessibility, the Holocaust research field also faces some practical challenges such as multi-lingual access, poor online infrastructure or the lack of expertise in digital preservation in various regions/institutions.

The workshop will address all practical, legal and ethical challenges that archivists and users confront.

Call for Papers

The international workshop addresses museum and archive professionals as well as Holocaust scholars and Digital Humanities professionals.

Proposals are now invited for individual presentations and group discussion. Topics include, but not limited to:

1.    Legal and ethical challenges of online primary sources

a.    Personal data protection in online records

b.    Legal and ethical concerns - measures to maintain control of online collections

c.    Evaluation of the current access to collections in different regions and proposals for enabling the access to archives

2.    Practical challenges for CHIs (Collection Holding Institutions)

a.    Evolution of archival research in the age of the Internet:     The relevance of putting the collections online in the digital age

•To publish or not to publish online: catalogues, finding aids and primary sources

•Potential positive or negative outcomes of putting collections online

•What are the main categories of users and what types of sources do they need? b. Practical challenges in putting primary sources online

•Practical challenges: digitalization, digital preservation, making the digital assets searchable 

•The integration of Social Media: dealing with users’ feedback

•Multilingualism: challenges and realities for CHIs and researchers

•Financial concerns in putting the collections online

3.    Researchers' perspective

a.    Researchers' perspective: criticism of sources

b.    Users’ expectations and reactions: how do institutions decide what to put online and what do users expect?

Starting from the individual presentations and the professionals` shared experience or knowledge, group discussions are encouraged on ethical and practical challenges to open online access to Holocaust archives.

Each proposal included in the workshop program will be allotted between 15 to 20 minutes for presentation followed by discussion (to clarify: this is an experts' workshop rather than a conference and, as such, ample time must be provided for questions/discussion).

The workshop will be conducted in English. Translation from or to other languages will not be available. A moderator will lead all workshop sessions.

Funding for travel and accommodation will be available to participants in accordance with European Commission guidelines and the EHRI project budget.

If you are interested in participating, please send a short 500-word proposal for a presentation and a CV (including all relevant contact information) to: rpopa@inshr-ew.ro / ehricfa1@gmail.com 

The presentations will be selected by a peer review committee. 

After the workshop, the `Elie Wiesel` National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania offers the interested professionals, the opportunity to publish an extended version of their presentation in the Holocaust. Study and research Journal, internationally indexed in ERIH, EBSCO, CEEOL.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 9 March 2017. 

Notification will be sent via email by 16 March 2017.

Proposals send to Mrs. Roxana Popa: rpopa@inshr-ew.ro  / ehricfa1@gmail.com 

Questions on administrative matters send to: rpopa@inshr-ew.ro