"Digitales SchauDepot" - Digital curation of cultural heritage

Due to the growing pressure of digitization and open access demands, cultural institutions are increasingly presenting their collections in digital space. Dealing with this constantly growing amount of data poses a major challenge, especially with regard to data quality, long-term storage and digital storytelling. Basel represents one of the densest museum landscapes in Central Europe, but less than half of the renowned institutions present their collections in virtual space. In order to secure the cultural significance of Basel’s collections over time and space, the project "Digitales SchauDepot" aims to transfer the collections into the digital realm. I will discuss the necessary strategies for a digital collection, particularly in regard to curation over time and space. Curation involves maintaining, recording and exhibiting collections. Once collections are digitized, they also need to be curated as streams of data. Digital curation, as defined by the Digital Curation Center, involves the practice of maintaining and managing data over its lifecycle, addressing the technical aspects of cultural heritage data. This allows for computational methods to be applied, and State-of-the-Art projects already showcase these methods. Furthermore, video games display how storytelling mediates cultural heritage in an engaging manner to a vast demographic. On the other hand, state-funded institutions don’t seem to adapt as quickly to new opportunities. The project Digitales SchauDepot aims to mediate within this context by creating prototypes tailored to the needs of each collection while having a foundation of standardized and interoperable data.