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By Concha Fernández de la Puente - July 2000
This section aims to provide news of the European Commission's initiatives in the field of digital heritage and cultural content. Its objectives are to summarise the latest developments in programmes, projects and activities and to give a clear picture of progress in the area. It certainly does not pretend to be a comprehensive account of what the EC is doing in the area but rather a short summary of some of the key items. The content is based largely on the information provided in the e-Culture Newsletter, published by the European Commission, DG Information Society, Cultural Heritage Applications Unit [1].
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Any account of EC initiatives in the field of digital heritage and cultural content must include a reference to e-Europe [2]. This initiative is aimed at accelerating the uptake of digital technologies throughout Europe, including in the area of culture. E-Europe, launched in December 1999, was given additional impetus at the recent Lisbon Summit on employment, economic reform and social cohesion. It is expected to foster a number of changes in Europe over the next few years as we advance towards a complete and equal information society.
The other and in our case fundamental initiative is the Information Society Technologies Programme (IST) [3] and in particular its digital heritage and cultural content area [4]. Complete information on this area and its work can be found in the article Digital Heritage and Cultural Content in the New Information Society Technologies Programme, prepared by Bernard Smith and published in this first issue of Cultivate Interactive. It is in the framework of the IST programme that CULTIVATE, the European Cultural Heritage Network, has been funded, and through CULTIVATE this magazine.
The socio-economic aspects is one of the important issues of IST research. The Cultural Heritage Applications unit therefore decided to evaluate the socio-economic impact of the first round of proposals funded under the IST Programme in the area of digital heritage and cultural content. The report [5] prepared by the evaluators provides some new guidelines that might form the basis of criteria for judging the SE element of projects based on a range of conceptual and practical indicators of socio-economic significance that might determine future research in the field of European cultural heritage.
The Commission is now preparing the IST workprogramme 2001. In order to prepare the input from the digital heritage and cultural content area, two brainstorming meetings were organised:
The Digital libraries research for access to cultural and scientific resources meeting [6] tried to identify emerging research trends and issues for advanced/innovative access to cultural and scientific resources. The meeting brought together experts from digital libraries, virtual reality, information visualisation and other fields
The Creating a living on-line record of Europe's cultural diversity meeting [7] brought together experts from across Europe with experience in the provision of new services in and around the library, museum and archive institutions, particularly at local or regional level.
The output of both meetings will be considered when drafting the action lines for the digital heritage and cultural content area of the IST workprogramme 2001.
The Fifth Framework Programme includes another important initiative addressing cultural heritage fostered under the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme. This has a key action called City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage [8] which aims at protecting, conserving and enhancing the cultural heritage for the sustainable exploitation of its socio-economic potential for employment and tourism. To achieve this, the action will focus, among other things, on development and demonstration of technologies and products for diagnosis, protection, conservation, restoration and sustainable exploitation of the European cultural heritage, focusing on both movable and immovable cultural assets with a view to promoting their value and the quality of life.
While the current Fifth Framework Programme is well advanced, we are still monitoring on-going projects under the former Fourth Framework Programme in which libraries, museums and archives have also participated. Some 30 Libraries projects are still on-going. One of the last activities under the Telematics for Libraries [9] programme was the conference Consolidating the European Library Space [10] that took place in Luxembourg in November 1999. This meeting, that prepared the transition from the 4th to the 5th Framework Programme, aimed to review the achievements of the past programme, to evaluate the results and to look at emerging issues facing the European information society in the new millennium.
In parallel the Impact study of the Telematics for Libraries Programme under FP4 [11] was being prepared. A total of 49 projects (including accompanying measures) were financially supported under this programme, receiving 29 Million Euro in total. The report provides an integrated presentation of results and related findings which allows us to assess the impact that the programme has had on the European library scene.
Important work in this field is also continuing in the INFO2000 Programme [12] that terminates at the end of this year. This programme is aimed at stimulating the emerging multimedia content industry to recognise and exploit new business opportunities. Some of the projects funded under this programme came into the areas of culture [13] and multimedia rights clearance [14].
As a follow up to INFO2000, we find the other important initiative in the digital content area: the “European Digital Content on the Global Networks” (eContent) programme [15], which builds on the activities previously carried out under INFO2000 and MLIS. eContent aims to explore the potential and to test the market response in three specific areas where market barriers prevent the full development of Europe content. One of the areas is exploitation of public sector information.
Also applicable to the area of cultural heritage is the TEN-Telecom Programme [16] that promotes innovative applications and services in areas of common interest with a high social or business impact contributing to the development of the information society. The programme launched a Call for Proposals for projects of common interest in the field of trans-European telecommunication networks - Generic Services and Applications. One of the areas featured in the Call was: Access to Europe's cultural heritage.
The other key EC initiative in the area of culture, although not in the research sector, is the CULTURE2000 programme [17]. This is a European Union financial support programme aimed at European cultural co-operation. Its principal objectives are the promotion of cultural dialogue, creativity and the trans-national distribution of culture, the promotion of cultural diversity and common cultural heritage, and improving public access to culture. Calls for Proposals are launched at the beginning of each year. The programme started in 2000 and will run until 2004 inclusive. The first call [18] was launched on 8 April 2000 and its at the moment being evaluated. The key issue for this year is music.
Last but not least, we should mention the successful project To create an Information System for the Russian State Library [19] funded by the EC in the framework of the TACIS programme [20]. The project aims at supporting the modernisation of the Russian State Library from a traditional library to a digital library, introducing new information technology which meets the growing information needs of the Russian market and brings to life the vast resources of this national library. To present the results from the project, the international conference Managing the digital future of libraries [21] took place in Moscow from 19-20 April 2000. This type of initiative demonstrates the importance of the international co-operation in the framework of the EC work.
In this overview we have reviewed a number of important EC initiatives addressing cultural heritage in a digital environment. The development of e-Europe and the progress and results of the work carried out by the digital heritage area of IST will probably have a significant impact on future strategy and activities. We will of course keep you informed of developments as they occur.
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Concha Fernández de la Puente
European Commission
DG Information Society
Cultural Heritage Applications
concha.fpuente@cec.eu.int
<http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/>
The information provided does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission.
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For citation purposes:
Fernández de la Puente, C. "DIGICULT Column",
Cultivate Interactive, issue 1, 3 July 2000
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue1/digicult/>
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