Literatur im Netz (Literature on the Web)

There are a myriad of literary writings and evidence of their reception to be found in online spaces. Due to processes of online archiving and screen casting, such sources can be collected. The DLA aims to preserve them as authentically as possible, maintaining their ›look and feel‹. 

The library does not collect all literature born on the web. Instead, relevant phenomena and present day ways of writing are documented through the construction of corpora. Through these efforts, fifty sources of electronic literature, created between 1994 and 2004, have joined the DLA’s collection. 2008 saw the inclusion of a selection of literary blogs and journals. In 2024, the scope of the project was broadened to include social media, podcasts, the websites of authors, the digital feuilleton, and the genre of fanfiction.

All archiving and long-term conservation is hosted on the DLA’s servers. Bibliographically, the sources are indexed in the Marbach online catalogue Kallías, the union catalogue of the Southwestern region (SWB), and the Zeitschriftendatenbank (Journal Database, ZDB). In this way, not only are the conventional collection and the cataloguing of literary sources in Marbach systematically augmented, but new digital media reflecting contemporary life are also accounted for.

The sources can be accessed by way of the online catalogue Kallías, as well as through lists in the web presence of the project (literary journals, literary blogs, electronic literature and the fanfiction collection). The archive (2008–2018), based on the SWBcontent software, currently encompasses over 450 sources archived in their entirety. In order to restart the Literature on the Web project in 2024, which includes active archiving processes, the DLA has been developing its own technical method since the end of 2023. As a result, we will happily receive suggestions from authors with regards to sources belonging in our area of collection. The DLA’s library will add digital literary works to its indexing and will make a note of them for the archiving programme, provided they meet requirements with regards to content and technical prerequisites. 

• Collection criteria and procedures
• Target Group
• Access
• Legal and Contractual Basis