Docs

The establishment of three so-called DOCs (Documentation and Research Centres) has been realized in 2006. This concerns an innovation of the documentation and the research of the Meertens Institute, both in an organizational sense and in a content-related sense. In an organizational sense, there will be three groups accommodating their tasks in a DOC, which will enable them to develop their own policies. Contacts with documentalists and researchers outside the Meertens Institute (who, in many instances, will also be part of the DOC), will result in the establishment of national documentation and research centres in the aforementioned fields. This will undoubtedly stimulate the activities in these fields, for instance regarding the application for external financial means (NWO subsidies, etc.) for research projects in these research areas. Apart from this, it will lead to the continuity in documentation (heritage) we strongly desire and to the extension of existing collections. The link with research is inevitable, given the fact that we are dealing with documentation aimed at the performance of scientific research. Innovation also concerns the extension of the documentation related to fields that have not yet or not sufficiently been recorded in the existing digital databases at present. Exampes are children’s songs, historical folktales and toponyms.

 

DOC Volksverhaal (DOC Folktales)

On 1st July 2006, the ‘DOC Volksverhaal’ was launched. The DOC Volksverhaal is an expertise centre with an extensive archive of folktales that have been recorded from the oral tradition, and also with a large library containing editions of and publications on folktales. The DOC is a kind of encyclopedia for the public. The DOC Volksverhaal also occupies itself with scientific research on folktales, including regular publications. For more information, see the website of the DOC Volksverhaal.

DOC Naamkunde (DOC Onomastics)

From December 2006 onwards, the Onomastics Network (‘Netwerk Naamkunde’) has its own website. This website is a meeting point for everyone interested in names. It contains all sorts of information regarding first names, family names and other kinds of names. Moreover, it is the home base of the Onomastics Network, a platform for onomasticians and other people interested in onomastics in the Netherlands and Flanders. For more information, see the website of the DOC Naamkunde.

DOC Lied (DOC Songs)

The ‘DOC Lied’ is an expertise centre for Dutch songs. Documentation is realized by means of the Dutch Folksong Database, a database that gives access to more than 100.000 songs, from the Middle Ages to the modern times, including the oral tradition. The research contains several aspects of Dutch song culture in past and present, like the mechanism of oral tradition, the contrafact, street songs and tearjerkers. The activities of the DOC Lied also include teaching, realized through the special chair of Dutch Song Culture at Utrecht University. The DOC intends to further develop its role as expertise centre in the field of Dutch songs in the next few years, in collaboration with the Foundation for the Heritage of Dutch Songs, the universities of Utrecht, Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven, the Digital Library of Dutch Literature and the ‘Koninklijke Bibliotheek’ (National Library of the Netherlands) in The Hague. For more information, see the website of the DOC Lied.