“Ancient Lore with Modern Applications”

Tuesday evening a special event will take place at the Franklin Public Library:  “Ancient Lore with Modern Applications”: How Digitization is Transforming Cultural Heritage at Germany's Berlin State Library with Dr. John Woitkowitz.

How is technology transforming our cultural heritage held in libraries and archives around the world? Dean College’s Humanities in Action Initiative and the Franklin Historical Commission are pleased to welcome Dr. John Woitkowitz, head of the Stabi Lab at Germany’s Berlin State Library, to speak on the future of libraries and digital humanities. 

Appropriately enough, the event is being held at America's firsts free public libary.

Dr. Woitkowitz will give a talk entitled “Ancient Lore with Modern Applications: How Digitization is Transforming Cultural Heritage at Germany’s Berlin State Library” followed by Q&A at the Franklin Public Library (118 Main St, Franklin, MA) at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. The talk will take place in the Meeting Room (ground floor). Please RSVP using this link. All are welcome! Opening comments will be provided by the Historical Commission and then Dean's Dr. David Dennis will introduce the topic and Dr. Woitkowitz.

Woitkowitz will examine the technologies, practices, and ethical concerns that are reshaping the way libraries and archives preserve, promote, and curate our cultural heritage.

John Woitkowitz (Ph.D., University of Calgary, 2018) hails from Berlin, Germany, where he is Head of the Stabi Lab at the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. His expertise includes the fields of research infrastructure, data curation, data visualization und science communication. Before joining the SBB, John’s research focused on nineteenth and twentieth-century histories of exchange and knowledge transfer in the transatlantic world with a special focus on the polar regions.