Projects

TMPersonalLibrary

Aim of the project

  • Evaluation of his entire personal library for books containing marginalia, i.e. handwritten notes and markings
  • Integral digitization of books containing marginalia
  • Transcription of the marginalia
  • Conception and introduction of a front-end for searching and displaying marginalia

Description of the project

The most important holdings in the Thomas Mann Archive include Thomas Mann's personal library, which contains numerous books with notes and markings made by the author's own hand. To this day, there is no access to all the marginalia important for understanding the production of the author's works. With the project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, all the marginalia left in Mann's personal library are to be digitized, transcribed and rendered searchable for research in a contemporary way.   

Moreover, the digitization project also performs a conservational function as the physical use of the unique titles is reduced thanks to this novel form of access.

Synergies and context

In the autumn of 2015, the Swiss National Science Foundation approved a project application submitted by Professor Andreas Kilcher (ETH Zurich, GESS Department) in collaboration with the ETH Library.

The project is to be implemented in collaboration with:

The resulting application will constitute a valuable addition to the archival database TMA_online introduced in 2015.

Cooperation partners

GESS, Chair of Literature and Cultural Studies

Timeframe, sequence

April 2016 to March 2019

Project team 20162019

  • Project head: Katrin Keller
  • Technical management: Michael Ehrismann
  • Indexing sub-project head: Anke Jaspers
  • Digitisation sub-project head : Roman Jehli, Regina Wanger
  • Scientific collaborators: Manuel Bamert, Martina Schönbächler
  • Student assistants – digitisation
  • Student assistants – indexing

Completed projects

Aim of the project

  • Improvement of the photographic holdings' accessibility via re-indexing and digitization
  • Conservation and protection of the original holdings via integral digitization and repackaging in containers suitable for archiving
  • Initial clarification of the rights to the photographs

Description of the project

The Thomas Mann Archive owns around 7,000 photo prints in a wide variety of formats depicting the life and work of Thomas Mann, as well as his personal sphere. The photographs, which were taken by more than 500 photographers and date from the 1840s to the 1990s, are extremely important to understand the "media author" Thomas Mann. Within the scope of the project, the photographic material is re-taken at individual image level, the contents described, digitized, repacked in proper containers and archived.

Synergies and context

The project uses the image information system Canto Cumulus, which ETH-Bibliothek has already deployed to index and manage comparable photographic holdings (including the Max Frisch Archive) and present them online. The digitization is performed at the ETH Library's DigiCenter.  

Timeframe, sequence

July 2015 to April 2016: Project duration

2017: After the project's completion, the groundwork to upload a selection of photos into a catalogue on E-Pics will commence. In particular, the usage rights for the photographs are to be clarified. The catalogue is scheduled to go online in the course of 2017.

Aim of the project

  • Improve access to the holdings in the Thomas Mann Archive (TMA) through up-to-date indexing that is also accessible online
  • Conservation and protection of the original holdings through an integral digitization of the holdings

Description of the project

The Thomas Mann Archive offers key source material for research purposes. It provides access to Mann's diaries, numerous manuscripts of his works, extensive correspondence and a broad newspaper documentation.  The TMA_online project involves indexing all archive and documentation holdings in accordance with the modern archiving standard. The index information is gradually being made accessible online.

In order to conserve and protect the originals  the entire holdings are being digitized in the library's own DigiCenter. Although legal barriers stand in the way of publishing the digital copies, they are accessible in-house in the archive’s reading room.

Synergies and context

The TMA_online project is part of the ETH Zurich Executive Board's 2013/2014 Impulse Programme. The extended timeframe of the project will end in the middle of March 2015.Synergies in archive information systems and indexing develop from the exchange with ETH Zurich's University Archives and the Max Frisch Archive.   

Timeframe, sequence

March 2015: Webclient initiated with index information
June 2015: end of project

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