The data stewards of the HUN-REN Data Steward Network - closely linked to the Data Repository Platform - along with the mentors and supporting IT specialists coordinating the network, hold off-site events at each other’s institutes every summer. These optional events provide an opportunity for our staff to gain a better understanding of how each other’s institutions operate and to foster collaboration across different academic disciplines.
On August 26, 2026, the Institute for Musicology at the ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities served as the host institution. The program began with presentations by ZTI researchers on research data management. Lili Veronika Békéssy, a research fellow at ZTI, gave an engaging presentation titled “Digital Publication of Musical Works,” approached from a digital humanities perspective. Klára Erdélyi-Molnár, director of the Archives and Department for Folk Music and Folk Dance Research, delivered an excellent presentation on organizing folklore events into a unified database based on location data, followed by a practical demonstration of the database’s operation by József Kasoly, an external collaborator at the archive. The morning session of the event concluded with a presentation by Bálint Szabó, data steward at HTK ZTI, who spoke about integrating folk music and folk dance collection data into a historical geographic information system database - the GISta Hungarorum.
Following the presentations, participants had the opportunity to tour the storage facility where the archival recordings are kept, and data steward Bálint Szabó also gave a tour of the ZTI’s digitization workshop, where data stewards gained insight into the methods used to manage, digitize, and publish dance films.
During the afternoon program, participants also toured the exhibitions at the Museum of Music History. The guided tour was led by László Gombos, a research fellow at the museum, who, with his witty and captivating presentation style, brought the history of our musical heritage closer to the audience.
Photos: Ilona Verle (HUN-REN Wigner FK) and Gabriella Virág (ELTE TK)
Thumbnail: Pexels, Muhammethan CETIN