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By Sanita Berzina - July 2002
Sanita Berzina reports on the conference "Co-operation of Museums, Archives and Libraries in the Electronic Era - Experience, Reality, Strategies for the Future", held in Riga, 25 - 26 April, 2002.
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This conference was held in Riga, the capital of Latvia. It ran for 2 days, both of which were well attended and which saw a high degree of activity. The conference was notable not least for the fact that this was the first time that archive, library, museum and IT specialists from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had met in such numbers.
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| Figure 1: Opening Session of the 1st. e-MAL Conference of the Baltic States |
The importance of the conference can be estimated when one considers these two points. Firstly, it united specialists from museums, libraries, archives and IT in the Baltic States and from other countries. Secondly, the conference was devoted to what some might consider three quite different cultural areas - archives, libraries and museums. As such it helped to raise awareness of the current state of these branches in the context of digitisation. In addition, it ensured the sharing of experience across the national, local and international levels.
The main objectives of the conference were:
The process of digitization of archives, libraries and museums has just begun in the Baltic States. With but a few exceptions there is no access to digitised collections on the Internet and practically no capacity to use metadata for searching for digital objects.
In order to coordinate the digitisation of information resources, it will be essential to foster co-operation between archives, libraries and museums in Latvia and the other Baltic States. One of the main things to be done is to achieve agreement on common digitisation standards, both on the national and international level, but, first of all on the institutional level. Another major goal will be to promote the development of unified programs and strategy for digitising.
The majority of conference participants were the specialists from archives, museums, libraries, IT and other fields, not only from the Baltic States, but also from Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom. All in all, there were more than 25 presentations given over the two days of the conference.
On the first day of the conference, held at the Riga Latvian Society, 14 speakers participated: M.Andress, E.Becker (Germany), S.Bang (Norway), N.Brakker (Russia), K.Cerans, A.Vilks (Latvia), L.Johansson (Sweden), A.Knoll (Czech Republic), A.Lepik, M.Siiner (Estonia), A.Plioplys (Lithuania), B.Royan (United Kingdom), J.Saarinen (Finland) and T.Wanning (Denmark). They gave a deep insight into various national and regional projects providing a clear picture of what been done in the other countries in the context of digitisation, a run-down of the main issues to be confronted and a view of the most successful solutions.
On the first day there were 212 participants, including 61 library specialists, 48 museum specialists, 39 archive specialists, 44 specialists in other fields and 20 guests.
The second day of the conference was organised into three sections:
Given the close proximity of the substance of sections A and B, it would have possible to have considered them jointly.
In section A, held in the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences (University of Latvia), the presenters, K.Alev, H.Helves (Estonia), S.Berzina, A.Spektors (Latvia), N.Caidi (Canada), and I.Kondratieva, D.Roubashkin (Russia), covered a wide range of themes: issues of national information policy and the role of archives, museums and libraries therein, library standards in Latvia and the importance of national and international projects within cultural heritage institutions in the age of technology were examined.
Section B was held in the Latvian Academic Library and there were 4 speakers participating: A.Aboltina, A.Glosiene (Lithuania), R. Kalnina (Latvia ), and K.Saarevet (Estonia). The speakers gave a presentation on the current situation in the sphere of digitisation in the Baltic States, looking for the best solutions and likely directions activity would take towards the successful development of digitisation.
Section C was concerned with questions of restoration. It was held at the Riga Latvian Society. Three speakers from Latvia, M.Dzenis, I.Limane and I.Rudzite gave presentations on the current situation, the problems and solutions regarding restoration in Latvia together with comparisons with the experience of other countries.
On this second day highest activity was observed in section A "Metadata, Standards & IT" : 49 people took part. 38 participants were attended section B and 32 section C.
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| Figure 2: Section Reports Session |
In conclusion, overall, attendance at the conference may be regarded as very satisfactory , taking into account the small number of working specialists in these spheres in the Baltic States. Participants' interest was clearly discernible from the lively debate that ensued following each session's formal agenda.
National Library of Latvia http://www.lnb.lv
British Council http://www.britishcouncil.lv
Directorate General of Latvia State Archives http://www.arhivi.lv
IBM http://www.ibm.com
Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences (University of Latvia) http://www.lumii.lv
Lattelekom http://www.lattelekom.lv
Latvia State Authoriy on Museums http://www.muzeji.lv
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania
NORDINFO http://www.nordinfo.helsinki.fi
Riga Latvian Society http://www.rlb.lv
ZFB http://www.zfb.com
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Sanita Berzina
Laboratory Assistant
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences
University of Latvia
Raina 29
Riga LV 1459
Latvia
URL: <http://www.ailab.lv/
Email: snt@ailab.lv
Phone: +371 722 74 86
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For citation purposes:
Berzina, S. "The 1st e-MAL conference of the Baltic States", Cultivate Interactive, issue
7, 11 July 2002
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue7/eMAL/>
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