VIRTUELLES MAHNMAL. PROVENIENZERSCHLIESSUNG -- KOOPERATIV ODER STAND ALONE?

Many Austrian libraries conduct or conducted provenance research projects which pursue the following goals: the identification of Nazi looted books, the tracing of their original owners respectively their heirs and the restitution of the expropriated cultural artifacts. Important evidences for the provenance of these books are provided by property stamps, bookplates (ex libris) or dedications in the concerned exemplars. Currently most of them are only locally documented and utilized although a central database for all provenance characteristics that were detected could offer an easier access and revealing hints for further research. As a consequence a project was originated that pursued the issue of a manual for the indexing of provenance characteristics within the Austrian Library Network, the construction of so called "virtual monuments" and the establishment of an adequate way of representing of the results of the provenance research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]