The exclusively published online database "Interpretation" is a project begun by the author in 2012. The idea of the project was to keep an ongoing, highly accessible database. The site is continually under construction and, hence, is not a static size. This goes not only for its list of individual entries, which constantly grows, but includes as well the quality of its assessment, which has also consistently improved over the years. As a result, in the database there are several types of literature listings which are clearly differentiated from one another: Since the database presents references to literature from the remote past until today the retro-listing of title entries contain the correct page numbering only. Still, these minimal inventories are an important source for bibliographic research.

A clear forward jump is marked by the description of recent documents indexed from January 2013. They are made accessible not only through the development of the textual subject headings on the basis of the Subject Headings Authority File (SWD) with structured vocabulary but also with a system of classification: through the Regensburger Verbund Klassifikation (RVK), the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and through the local library classification JL1988 with verbal entry possibility which allows, for example, literature to be selected about a specific discipline or on a wider theme.

Since January 2014, descriptions of recent documents - in addition to the previously developed components - are made accessible through Integrated Authority File (GND), the German normative file of subject headings developed and maintained by the German National Library that fulfills all aspects of a comprehensive subject search mechanism. All articles currently added to "Interpretation" are assigned subject terms from the GND. The year 2016 marks a breaking point in the history of "Interpretation". In September 2016, following a three‐year selection effort, the library automation and integrated library system Ex Libris' Aleph 22 Sharing has been chosen as the new library and database system for "Interpretation". In February 2017, it had been implemented and the current data was converted to the new system.

From 1st March 2017, Aleph 22 Sharing and the discovery system PRIMO is online and will help you to retrieve your information even easier. During its short history, "Interpretation" has not only reached a considerable size, it has also won pro 600 users per month throughout the world. The database could never have been produced without manifold help which has been given to the author from both far and near, and for which I would now like to express my gratitude. In summer 2017 we are planning to apply for a grant from a governmental sponsoring body in order to professionalize and speed up cataloguing in "Interpretation".

How Can You Contribute?

"Interpretation - The International Bibliographic Database of Living History" is a new database and thus currently far from comprehensive. The most difficult part of making the database more comprehensive is learning about, and obtaining, publications. You can help us to make the database more complete by reporting your publications. Send us ISBNs, DOIs, URNs or citations that should be added to the database. Please help us to improve by reporting publications that are not yet in the database and by suggesting changes to our website. What could we add or change that would make the database more useful to you? When reporting a publication that has an ISBN, DOI or URL, all you need to do is email us the ISBN, DOI or URL. When reporting a publication that is not available online but is of a type that can be easily obtained through purchase or interlibrary loan (journal paper, book, thesis, etc.), please email a citation (please also send a PDF file, photocopy or the actual publication if you can easily do so). When reporting a publication that is not available online and is less easy to obtain (so-called grey literature), please send the actual publication by mail. If you or your organization has produced a publication as a PDF file and would like us to put the file open access on our scientific repository KiDokS (whether or not it is also available on your server), please email us the file along with a clear statement that you give us a non-exclusive right of use unrestricted in space and time and that you want us to make it available digitally.