Since 2013 the Istrian Archival Society (Croatia) has been searching for an uncomplicated online repository to publish the results of their projects online, as well as to offer the cultural institutions from Istria and Kvarner a possibility for making their archival fonds and collections available to the public. The topotheque tool proved to be the perfect solution to this issue and thus the Istrian Archival Society was able to establish their first topotheque “Ysterreich”. “Ysterreich” is the historical name of the area of Istria and the West Kvarner and the geographical area covered by this topotheque. The topotheque “Ysterreich” is extraordinary in many ways: it is the first topotheque used by archives, the first topotheque in Croatia and a milestone within the history of the topotheque in general as it is the first one beyond the national borders of Austria. It has been made possible by the EU-funded project co:op – community as opportunity. the creative archives’ and users’ network. The goal of topotheque “Ysterreich” is to be an online archive for the named region. A place for researchers to work jointly on geographically divided but now virtually rejoined fonds, and discovers unknown or distant archives. “With archives presented in a modern and well-designed way through the topotheque, we believe to finally have a useful didactic aid to enter the educational curriculum and present archives in high schools in an interesting way. We consider the topotheque a valuable way for archives, libraries and museums to open and present their archives, entire fonds or a selection to the public. Hereby we call up to all institutions with records on Istria throughout Europe willing to open up and share with the public to contact us, because school starts in autumn…” Markus Leideck (Istrian Archival Society, HR and co-founder of the topotheque “Ysterreich”)

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