SIS Social and Cultural Anthropology

The Specialized Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA) acts as a link between anthropological research and infrastructure development. It is jointly managed by the University Library of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Research Data Center Qualiservice at the University of Bremen, and advised by a scholarly advisory board. The service's main focus is advising and supporting research in all infrastructural matters that exceed the expertise and capacities available locally, or that are not considered efficient to handle locally. The service is funded through the DFG program “Specialized Information Services for Research.”

EVIFA, the specialized information portal, is the central platform through which all services, offers, and information about ongoing activities are made available.

Literature Provision

  • Acquisition of national and international subject-specific literature, with a focus on theoretical-methodological and disciplinary-historical works – with bibliographic records accessible via the EVIFA search

Digital Resources & Licenses

Research Data Management

  • Support for the archiving, preservation, and secondary use of ethnographic research data, primarily through consulting services and the development of specialized offerings at Qualiservice

Subject Infrastructures & Community Engagement

  • Participation in the further development of the Integrated Authority File (GND), as well as the integration of anthropological terminology, and moderation of intra-disciplinary discussions on standards, vocabularies, and ontologies
  • Overview of events and developments in the scholarly community: EVIFA News

Open Access & EthnOA

  • Promotion of Open Access in anthropology through the project EthnOA: via EthnOA_text and EthnOA_media, FID SKA offers free publication of texts and audiovisual media with DOI assignment and visibility in discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary search systems

Network Colonial Contexts

  • Participation in the Network Colonial Contexts in a coordinating role to develop strategies for an ethically responsible and research-enabling approach to (digital) materials originating from colonial contexts

Further Information


FID SKA emerged in 2016 from the Special Subject Collection (SSG) on Folklore and Ethnology, which had been curated at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin since 1998. The extensive historical holdings can be searched via the HU Berlin library catalog and are available nationwide through interlibrary loan or as digitized copies. An overview of all Specialized Information Services (and former Special Subject Collections) is available on Webis.

Contact

Matthias Harbeck
Subject Librarian for Social and Cultural Anthropology
University Library of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Email: matthias.harbeck@ub.hu-berlin.de
Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum, Room 9.514
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 1–3
10117 Berlin