William Weitzer

The Leo Baeck Institute (LBI) was established as an archive to preserve the history and culture of German-speaking Jews. While the LBI archives contain valuable information for family researchers, the archivists who collected and catalogued the materials were more likely to have research scholars in mind when indexing the collection. How then can archives like those at LBI be made more accessible and useful for genealogical research? This question will be analyzed by examining new trends in archival processing (e.g., digitization), cataloguing (e.g., metadata), and inter-institutional cooperation. GerSIG has invited the LBI to illustrate how taking advantage of these advances can facilitate the use of archives by family researchers. These new circumstances can support cooperation between archivists and genealogists, support increased use of archives by family researchers, and encourage the inclusion and recognition of the social, cultural and historical context in genealogical research.