Development project: The Index Didacticorum. Research Collaborative Bibliography of History Education (beta phase)
Project management / partners: Prof. Marko Demantowsky, Prof Markus Bernhardt (University Duisburg-Essen), Gregor Horstkemper (Zentrum für elektronisches Publizieren, Munich)
Project staff: Jennifer Lahmer (Osnabrück), Dr. Jan Hodel, Dr. Andreas Hofmann (Munich), Lena Liebern (Essen)
Funding institution: Co-operation project with contributions from all partners
Project period: Construction phase 2013 – 2015 (finished), beta phase (2015-2017)
In short: The Index is a collaborative bibliographic database, accessible at all times for everybody, whose technology can be understood intuitively by everyone, that defines choices and orders of categories according to disciplines, that enables access to its contents via multiple search options, whose data set quality is ensured by an editorial team of specialists[1] and which is, nevertheless, not an undertaking of individuals but, at best, of all disciplinary participants: this seemed to be the appropriate response to the basic problem described.
The Index Didacticorum has been online since September 2015. It started with 6’200 titles and currently (27.10.15) already encompasses 7’300 titles. The collaborative idea has been successful, to date.
There are four ways to search the contents:
- via a simple search box, like those in today’s search engines, whose query combinations are, momentarily, still restricted;
- via the alphabetical list of categories/tags;
- via the classification menu that extends down through four structural levels and automatically selects relevant data bases; a survey of the classifications that are used, their translations and organisation can be found under “Glossary”[2]; as well as
- via the links to tags/categories at the lower edge of the item display.
Submitting new titles is very easy: all that is required is to click on “Submit/Beitragen” and then to follow the Index’s menu suggestions. The suggested titles are then moved to a work platform (backend). Users can be sure that the editors first check the suggestions for correctness, particularly with respect to the categorisation, and then activate them.
Development context at the department
- Demantowsky, Marko: A Collaboration Machine. The Index Didacticorum. In: Public History Weekly 3 (2015) 34, DOI:dx.doi.org/10.1515/phw-2015-4778.
- Demantowsky, Marko: Das Geschichtsbewußtsein in der SBZ und DDR. Historisch-didaktisches Denken und sein geistiges Bezugsfeld unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Sowjetpädagogik (1946-1973). Bibliographie und Bestandsverzeichnis. Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung, Berlin 2000 (Bestandsverzeichnisse zur Bildungsgeschichte, Bd. 9).
