Paper short abstract:

Our talk will focus on the handling of materials from colonial contexts, in particular the processes surrounding digitisation and cataloguing within libraries. We want to present the work of the Network Colonial Contexts, its activities in relation to libraries and the associated metadata work.

Paper long abstract:

The Network Colonial Contexts deals with questions of digital consolidation, processing and visibility of ‘Colonial collections’. These involve writings, finding aids, historical sources from the colonial era and coeval research materials preserved in libraries. How can such heterogeneous data from colonial contexts be digitally presented, processed, visualised, be brought together, and finally used in meaningful ways? In addition to the importance of transparency and access, co-operation with the communities of interest plays a decisive role, which must be further strengthened.

Online catalogues and exhibitions form an interface between knowledge collections in European libraries on the one hand and the global public on the other. While this makes collections more accessible worldwide, this process is also accompanied by specific (ethical) challenges due to a larger circle of users: Who decides what can be shown and how? Which labels are used? Which standardised terms e.g. for forms of acquisition (exchange, gift, purchase, robbery) are appropriate? And who decides on all this? Another issue in this context includes multilingualism and multi-literacy as well.

Terminology and metadata are becoming increasingly important in the context of growing discourses on decolonisation as well when working on online catalogues and databases. They create transparency, enable participation and form the basis for the negotiations of communities of interest on forms of representation or restitution of certain objects. They are therefore no longer merely a working tool, but an important component of decolonial practice. The search for suitable and/or standardised concepts and systems of order poses a particular challenge.