





|
Central Database
SFB 496 is pursuing a database project, which forms a major part of the cooperation between the different projects. The objective of our combined efforts is to make the various cases of and the information on the forms of symbolic communication and the elements of social value systems, which are collected by the different projects, available for all projects in order to utilize them for interdisciplinary questions. The database constitutes an outstanding tool, especially when it comes to dealing with questions pertaining to the forms of expression and the relevance of symbolic communication. It allows for a diachronic comparison of particular signs, pictures, rituals, and values in their different contexts of usage.
At the moment, 6 projects (A2, A4, B2, B3, C1, C2) avail themselves of their own particular databases, which - after initial conceptual and technical obstacles - are now continually being fed with material and data from the current project work. In order to keep the amount of work which is tied up with entering the data and the maintenance of the database at a minimum, the structure of the database was modified in a way to suit the particular needs and questions of the different projects best. In the future, the collected and documented results of the particular projects are to be linked and made available for all projects through a shared search engine. At the centre of this search engine will be a hierarchically structured subject catalogue, which was collaboratively developed by the project members in intensive talks. It can be expected that the central database, which will enable all members of the collaborative research centre to access the systematically classified sources and materials, will contribute to an intensification of interdisciplinary exchange and a strengthening of coherence of the content matter.
Additionally, in the long run, the database will be made accessible to a larger academic audience via the Internet since it provides an insight into the empirical material of different epochs and different disciplines which is still unprecedented in its form.
Philipp Spreckels, Stud. Hilfskraft
E-Mail: philipp.spreckels uni-muenster.de

|