Call for Participation: SPK Lab in Search of Project Partners!
News from 04/22/2022
The SPK Lab is looking for users of cultural heritage data who can help us draw up and implement new formats to encourage use of the digital material in our collections and holdings, whether by scholars, artists, or others working outside academia. Would you like to help us find the best ways of making our data available? Are you interested in opening up the data from cultural heritage collections and influencing how the SPK Lab addresses this challenge? Then send an application to join the new SPK Lab Partner network by May 29, 2022!
What is the SPK Lab?
The SPK Lab is a project organized by the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation),which is one of the leading cultural institutions in the world. Under its wing are museums, libraries, archives, and research institutes that hold a broad range of collections from all kinds of historical era, region, and cultural sphere. The objective of the project is to make the data from these various institutions available in such a way that it provides the greatest possible value and benefit to its users. In other words, like the previously established SBB Lab, we want to improve the visibility and accessibility of the diverse wealth of digitized information held throughout the SPK and in the process build relationships with you as data specialists. So we are inviting you to help create the ideal conditions and options for expanding the use of the digital data held by the SPK.
What exactly is the role of SPK Lab Partners?
From the very beginning, we want to include people whose interests bring them into contact with cultural heritage data in various ways. We want to get to know your ideas, needs and preferences as users so that we can provide our data to the public in the most user-friendly ways possible – and augment it for new scenarios. Although we may not be able to accommodate everyone’s preferences in this project, the SPK Lab Partners will be an important user forum for all five SPK institutions.
The SPK Lab Partners – a group of approximately 15 people – will assist the SPK Lab for the duration of the project. This will primarily involve virtual work meetings that will be held every two months for about half a day starting in May 2022. During these meetings, participants will discuss project developments such as the homepage, present interesting sets of data, plan events such as hackathons, and draw up new formats for user participation. SPK Lab Partners will encounter people who are actively involved in the digitization of cultural collections and want to share them with others, and they will also get a direct look at digital content held by the SPK, including some that has not yet been made accessible to the general public.
And who are you?
We are looking for people who have worked with digital collections and datasets involving cultural heritage and who want to contribute their own experience and ideas as well as using new data!
Maybe you use archaeological resources for your voluntary work on Wikipedia or create digital artwork based on digitized paintings; maybe you assess historical sources in the context of your research in the field of digital humanities, or carry out fascinating statistical analyses on OCR-captured text – whatever it may be, we want to hear from you. To put together a good mixture of participants, we are looking for people from the following backgrounds:
schools, vocational training and academic studies – digital art and mixed media – open GLAM organizations – media creation, design and visualization – game design and gamification – coding and app development – open data, open science and citizen science – digital humanities and data science.
But even if you don’t fit into one of these categories, get in touch anyway – we are interested in hearing from everyone.
How can you participate?
The role of an SPK Lab Partner is a volunteer position, and there is generally no income associated with it. To facilitate the participation of people who may not be able to afford to take a volunteer position of this kind, we intend to assign up to five work contracts, each of which comes with a one-time lump-sum allowance of 1000 euros. This is intended to ensure that the SPK Lab incorporates a variety of perspectives. Your application will be considered if you satisfy the following criteria: you agree to participate in the SPK Lab meetings and events for the entire duration of the project, and you provide evidence of the skills, abilities, or background that will help the SPK Lab achieve its objective.
If you want to become an SPK Lab Partner and want to participate in the SPK Lab project, then please send an e-mail to the following address by May 29, 2022: spk.lab@hv.spk-berlin.de. Provide your contact details and answer the following questions in this PDF file:
- What is your perspective on digital cultural heritage collections?
- How have you used digital data or content involving cultural heritage in the past?
- Why do you want to become an SPK Lab Partner, and what user groups do you represent?
Please also indicate whether you are interested in a work contract, and whether a work contract would be necessary for your participation. If there are more applications than available positions, the project team will seek to address diversity criteria and represent the above-mentioned fields as much as possible when making its selections. You will be informed of the outcome of your application within three weeks at most after the submission deadline; applicants will not be provided with a detailed explanation of the decisions made by the project team.
Apply by sending an e-mail to spk.lab@hv.spk-berlin.de or, to request more information or ask specific questions, contact Felix F. Schäfer at f.schaefer@hv.spk-berlin.de | +49 151 11 606 406.
We look forward to hearing from you!