What distinguishes the commbox from a Google search or other databases?

• The commbox is a curated selection of publications.
• It highlights especially recommendable key guides and 'deep insights' publications.
• It focuses on practice-relevant 'grey literature', but also includes academic materials.
• Ten filter options enable a precise selection of materials.
• The commbox is multilingual and has a high proportion of materials originating in the Global South.
• It makes publications from defunct organisations available again.

What are the main subject areas covered by the commbox?

• Approximately 50% of all materials focus on Media Development, especially on journalism, information ecosystems & media landscapes, press freedom, the role of media in conflicts & peace, international media assistance and community media.
• About 15% address Development Communication, including climate communication, disaster & humanitarian crisis communication, educational media, health communication, participatory video and others.
• Approximately 15% of all publications focus on Audiences & Users, especially children, migrants & diasporas, women and youth.
• About 10% cover Digital Transformation, especially artificial intelligence, digital access & inclusion, social media use, digital literacy and digital privacy & safety.
• Approximately 10% focus on Religion & Communication, especially on the Catholic Church and digital religion.

How to search the commbox?

• The easiest way is to put your search terms in the "Search" field at the top, which is a fulltext search on titles, authors, publishers, contents and abstracts or comments. Please use full words.
• Once you have started a search query, various filter options appear in the results display on the left. Refine the results by choosing your preferred topics, the publication language, document type, countries and regions covered, authors and publishers and other filter options.
• The fulltext search may not always be as accurate as the topic or country tags assigned to every document. Open the 'Document Details' view and click on the most appropriate tag to get all documents  assigned to this topic or country.
• If you are looking for materials on a broader range of topics, you can use the subject areas at the top or the sitemap. Here is an example: if you select the subject area 'Health Communication' - a sub-item of the Development Communication section - you will get all documents in this area, including Covid-19 communication, HIV / AIDS communication, health disinformation, emergency health communication and so on.

Which publications are freely available?

• All free access publications are marked with an open key symbol. Once you have started a search query, various filter options appear in the results display on the left. The top filter option allows you to select free access materials.
• Creative Commons publications can be directly downloaded from the commbox, meanwhile other freely available materials are linked to the websites of their creators. Unfortunately, external links may not work anymore when the websites are reorganized or disappear.
• The commbox also includes print and digital publications which cannot be downloaded or borrowed, but may be available at libraries participating in the WorldCat global library catalogue.

Why does the commbox feature Key Guides and Deep Insights?

• The commbox includes over 4,000 guides, toolboxes and training materials, so it may sometimes be difficult to determine which publications will help you to get started. Therefore commbox has tagged a selection of especially recommendable, practice-proven, self-explanatory and easy-to-use Key Guides.
• Which materials are particularly suitable for delving deeper into a topic? The commbox recommends you a selection of thematic handbooks, experiences and empirical research considered to provide Deep Insights.
• Key Guides and Deep Insights can be easily identified by the orange tags, and they can also be selected at the 'Featured' section on the top of the filter bar.

Who contributes to the contents of the commbox?

• The commbox builds on the expertise of the CAMECO team with its deep regional knowledge and partner networks in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central & Eastern Europe.
• Partner institutions like the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at Sheffield University, the Centre for Development Communication (C4DC) at Leipzig University or the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) curate Special Collections.
• Newsletters and websites like GFMD Impact, UNESDOC, IAMCR Announcements, commlist, Ijnet, fome, DOAB, Routledge, Springer, and many others are regularly screened.
• Individual persons and institutions can suggest new resources. To do so, you first have to register.
• We are grateful to Manfred Oepen, Reinold Thiel and Jan Keulen who donated their personal media development holdings to the commbox.

What are the advantages of registering with the commbox?

• You can create your own favourites in an individualised folder structure.
• You can suggest new resources to be included in the commbox.
• You can sbuscribe to the commbox newsletter.
• Registration is free of charge and being confidentially according to German data protection law.

What is the history of the commbox, and where are we going?

• Since its foundation in 1969 the media consultancy Catholic Media Council (CAMECO) in Aachen, Germany, has compiled materials on communication in the Global South.
• Since 1993, the library has been systematically expanded by Christoph Dietz and several part-time or student assistants. With the inclusion of online materials, the collection grows from 1,000 to 18,000 documents.
• In 2022 medmissio and CAMECO sign a mutual understanding for jointly developing the MEDBOX and commbox database software. The development costs are sponsored by Porticus and BEGECA. With the establishment of partnerships with other institutions working in the field of international media development, the holdings reach 30,000 titles when the commbox is launched in 2026.
• In a long-term perspective, integration with online libraries from the Global South is being pursued, beginning with a shared interface with the online library of the Latin American Centre for Advanced Communication Studies CIESPAL in Quito, Ecuador.

How is the commbox financed?

• The commbox depends on financial support for the maintenance, quality assurance and further development of the database.
• The mixed financing combines development cooperation funding, sponsorships for toolboxes and special collections, and in-kind contributions from volunteers.

How can you as institution or individual contribute to the commbox?

• We would be delighted to welcome you as volunteer in your area of expertise.
• You as institution can develop your own Special Collection.
• You can propose and sponsor new Toolboxes or financially support the further refinement of already existing toolboxes or other sections.
• We would be pleased to explore further opportunities for cooperation with online communication libraries in Africa, Asia & Pacific, Latin America & the Carribean.
• Do not hesitate to contact Christoph Dietz.