Birgit Kibal started as an archivist and researcher at the National Archives of Estonia in 1999, back in the era of paper and the very unique smell of the archives. After two decades, her interests are still there, deep in the sources, but the possible solutions of how to understand texts, maps, photos, recordings and any other form of data has changed rapidly and irreversibly. Also, the meaning of the archives has developed into a complex network where new technologies, cross-linked information, and wide range of volunteers together with local communities play a key role. Birgit is eager to be on board of this exciting, fun and promising journey of Time Machine.
“As the Time Machine will promote a stronger focus on learning and enabling interactive processes for the next generations, it will impact Europe’s and the world’s culture, science and economy. It is crucial to play along on this very scene with the next-stage technical solutions. In my view, some first steps will be new outcomes on crowd sourcing and education at the archives. The new aims hopefully come along with the project of Local Time Machines – to reach a higher density of cross-linked information, to use georeferencing, and to effect some new solutions in urban life and education. So far, we’ve just dealt with crowd sourcing and digitisation as it is quite usual in every archive. But I hope we will cooperate more with GLAM institutions and with society.”
