Kulturpool is online!
Grab your goggles, swim a couple of laps with us and then take a deep dive into the digital cultural heritage found in museums, libraries, and archives throughout Austria. Welcome to Kulturpool!
The portal launches in March 2024 with one million objects available as images, text, sound, video and soon also in 3D. Kulturpool provides you with a central search engine for accessing the online collections of institutions throughout Austria. Discover exciting, informative, and breathtaking objects. Explore these treasures on your own, gain inspiration, and discover the unknown!
Digital cultural heritage for everyone
Kulturpool is aimed at researchers, interested visitors and “culture dabblers” from all areas. The search functions across many domains and institutions allow users to make new cross-references and connections, uncover knowledge gaps and identify new strands of research.
The objective is to make Austria’s cultural heritage visible and usable for everyone from one central point. Kulturpool is open to everyone!
Central search across museums, libraries, and archives
The search functions have a lot to offer: The real-time search delivers initial results in an instant and automatically corrects small typos. The search results can be narrowed down even further using filters, for example by date, subject, or person. Finally, you can sort the results by institution or date and mark your favourites in the search results.
The detailed view of the objects is packed with additional information, such as the creator, medium, or type of object, as well as the rights of use or the format of the digitised material. A link always takes you directly from the Kulturpool to the digitised object in the online collection of the participating institution.
Long-term digitisation projects in institutions from all over Europe
Kulturpool is growing: As of March 2024 thirteen institutions are currently visible in Kulturpool and their numbers are growing. In the upcoming years, over 100 new institutions will be added, and their online collections will become part of Kulturpool as well. Institutions from all of Austria’s regions and many subjects ranging from art, architecture, literature and music to science, dance, and medicine as well as other thematic collections will be added.
The Kulturpool sees itself as a bridge between institutions and as a jumping-off point for users who are looking to immerse themselves in historical and cultural realities and contexts. The individual institutions provide a broad spectrum of objects, from books and works of art to sound recordings and digital 3D depictions of buildings.
After intensive preparations, we are delighted to be able to share Kulturpool with you. We warmly invite you to explore Austria’s digital cultural heritage. Enjoy!