We’re pleased to announce the release of the June 2025 issue of Multimedia & Technology Reviews (MTR), now available online.
This issue explores the timely and resonant theme of Preserving Cultural Heritage, a topic MTR has addressed in depth across previous issues. We invite you to explore the current reviews by following the links in the images below or by using the DOI link provided.
You can also browse the full archive of our reviews on the ARLIS/NA Commons CORE Repository.
As part of this theme, we’re highlighting a few past reviews that remain especially relevant. Here are some honorable mentions we encourage you to revisit:
Digital Benin
Mapping Philippine Material Culture
Missouri Remembers, Artists in Missouri through 1951
¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now
Visualizing the Virus
Archive of Destruction
Reviewed by: Bridget O’Keefe
The Archive of Destruction is an idiosyncratic digital repository that presents histories of public art and narratives around the concept of destruction. The creators characterize the resource as a global collection of modern and contemporary artwork, showcasing narratives of ‘vulnerability, interference, rage, fear, boredom, and love. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/0x8h0-gs125
Cultural gems
Reviewed by: Campbell Garland
Begun in 2018, Cultural gems functions as a map application mapping out monuments, historical sites, and cultural institutions within the European Union. This site is run by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, an organization focused on promoting scientific research and collaboration. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/bgj5v-ee815
Cultures in Crisis
Reviewed by: Carol Ng-He
Culture in Crisis is a free digital portal developed by the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) that records heritage protection projects from around the world. Launched in December 2019, the portal is considered to be the world’s largest and most accessible database on the subject.See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/2b0es-z5879
Digital Transgender Archive
Reviewed by: Leo Krakowsky
The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is a key resource for primary research in queer and trans studies. The scope of its content and usage is timely and important in the current political climate, with applicability to a variety of library patrons. The DTA’s interface is clean and easy to understand, with impressive functionalities for search. Whether the user has an extensive background in transgender studies and topics, or is just beginning to familiarize themselves with this field, this resource’s content is offered in a clear and findable format. Particularly, the glossaries and lesson-planning guides are informative and helpful. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/p5bcv-hxm16
dPlan|ArtsReady
Reviewed by: Carrie B. Evans
dPlan|ArtsReady is an emergency preparedness tool designed to help arts and cultural heritage organizations assess their disaster response plans, identify areas for improvement, retrieve important documents, and access expert resources. The platform can serve a range of organizations and is available in free or paid versions. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/9vhvc-wsf26
Lost Art Database
Reviewed by: Stephanie Morgan
The Lost Art Database, developed by the German Lost Art Foundation, is a publicly accessible digital platform dedicated to documenting cultural property that was expropriated due to Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1945, or displaced as a result of World War II. The site contains thousands of entries, divided into Search Requests for missing cultural assets and Found-Object Reports for those that may have problematic provenance. The resource serves as a tool for restitution efforts and provenance research. It is designed to benefit scholars, institutions, and individuals seeking to trace displaced objects or claim lost heritage. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/g1542-btv17
Museum of Looted Antiquities
Reviewed by: Samie Konet
The Museum of Looted Antiquities (MoLA) is a virtual gallery dedicated to the intricacies of tracing the smuggling, looting, purchase, and eventual return of antiquities repatriated since 1950. With contributions from community members–academics, lawyers, museum professionals–MoLA presents a comprehensive collection of trafficked antiquities with over 100 publicly available entries. Created to consolidate documentation tracing an artifact’s journey from its looting to eventual repatriation, MoLA aspires to preserve all records of ownership and exchange of an object for future research. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/87qxg-82r44
NuevaYorkinos
Reviewed by: Laura Michael
A crowd-sourced digital archival initiative and multimedia project, NuevaYorkinos depicts everyday histories through photographs of Caribbean and Latino people living in all five boroughs of New York. The resource consists of community submissions, and each photograph is often accompanied by a written story or memory from its owner. The purpose of this digital archive is to visually document the quotidian lives of Latinos in NYC through an overall ethos of community history and storytelling. NuevaYorkinos has a wide scope, inviting submissions of photos and videos dated before 2010 from anyone of Caribbean or Latino descent. On its website, the photographic archive is organized by borough. With over 1,000 entries, most contributions are concentrated in Manhattan, and are mainly from the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. Founded by Djali Brown-Cepeda and Ricardo Castañeda, this multimedia project also includes virtual exhibitions, a free educational journal called Rooted, and in-person events. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/em8xc-nvb02
Queer Zine Archive Project
Reivewed by: Alex Austin
The Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) is an online blog and archive that contains fully digitized and browsable zines about queer subjects, available free to the public. Behind the digitized collection lives a physical archive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, though the website serves as the primary mode of access. QZAP describes their intended audience as, “other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest [in] DIY publishing and underground queer communities.”
See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/83bj5-6ks19
Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online
Reviewed by: Ruth Thomas
In February of 2022, Russian forces invaded eastern Ukraine. Less than two weeks later, an initiative emerged on the internet, founded by digital historians, librarians, and archivists to protect culturally significant materials from Ukraine from being lost in the conflict: Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO). With over 1,500 international volunteers contributing over 50TB of data, SUCHO aims to preserve digital and digitized records from Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions at risk of destruction due to war. With implications for those concerned with digital preservation, cultural memory, and post-custodial models of stewardship, SUCHO is a striking example of a responsive, community-driven archival initiative. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/xtg1e-ekq04
Sudan Memory
Reviewed by: Reinhardt Schuhmann
The Sudan Memory project is a digital collection that preserves and promotes cultural materials from and about Sudan. Begun in 2018, it’s a collaboration between Sudanese and international partners, including Sudaak, the National Records Office of Sudan, and King’s College London. Materials are sourced from public and private collections, many at risk of being lost due to the ongoing Sudanese civil war. Collections come from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, The National Records Office of Sudan, The Sudan Archeological Research Society, Tales of Jewish Sudan, and University of Khartoum. The platform offers a vast collection of digitized materials, including images, films, manuscripts, and oral histories, spanning over 6,000 years of Sudanese history. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/3w9qy-x9786
Talking Objects Archive
Reviewed by: Shira Atkinson
The Talking Objects Archive (TOA) includes objects from international museum collections in Europe and Africa. It is a publicly available, free resource newly launched on January 17, 2025, aimed at researchers and artists. The website is available to view in English, French and German. See full review at: https://doi.org/10.17613/qy5s9-s7c82