Culture Cloud Niedersachsen

In Lower Saxony, the cultural heritage institutions under the jurisdiction of the state possess a diverse range of information and data that are of significant interest to all institutions, the scientific community, and the general public. Currently, however, these data are stored in highly disparate formats across the data-holding institutions and are, in some cases, not even accessible. Therefore, the project "Culture Cloud - The Cultural Data Infrastructure for Lower Saxony" has set the objective of rendering decentralized information and data centrally discoverable and searchable.
The realization of this objective requires three key measures: Firstly, a state-wide, central cultural data infrastructure with the necessary interfaces to data-holding institutions must be established, which ensures secure data storage and continuous searchability. Secondly, uniform requirements, such as those for the identification of persons and places, must be defined and subsequently implemented by all data-providing institutions. This creates the foundation for optimized process workflows regarding data generation and curation within the Lower Saxony cultural data infrastructure. Finally, based on this infrastructure and these processes, additional data must be acquired that are currently either scattered digitally or maintained in analog form.
The Culture Cloud is thus an infrastructure project that is an integral component of the research utilizing it, promoting research, integrating third parties into the research process, and providing data to individuals, institutions, and associations distant from research. The creation of a cultural data infrastructure for Lower Saxony will generate momentum that is expected to encourage further data-holding institutions to participate in the future, while also granting the public, as well as the cultural and creative industries, access to the state's cultural data.
By conceptualizing history as a construct in a constant state of flux, the Culture Cloud reflects the decentralized structure of the state and underscores the significance of "data as cultural heritage". Through the Culture Cloud, the continuously growing data volumes will be made accessible, facilitating regular decentralized updates and accommodating evolving topics and methodologies as well as the specific requirements of the historical and cultural sciences. The Culture Cloud will provide a platform for the long-term preservation and dissemination of cultural data, enabling researchers, cultural institutions, and the general public to explore and utilize the rich cultural heritage of Lower Saxony.