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| Issue 8 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Annette Kelly and Domitilla Fagan - November 2002
Annette Kelly and Domitilla Fagan report on the Cultural Heritage Project, a new digitisation initiative addressed to Irish libraries, museums and archives.
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The Cultural Heritage Project is an initiative coordinated by the Branching Out Steering Group Cultural Heritage Panel, managed by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna (The Library Council) and funded by the Department of the Environment and Local Government in the Irish cultural sector. It focuses on the digitisation and provision of new modes of access to cultural heritage material in libraries, archives and museums in Ireland [1].
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| Figure 1: AskAboutIreland Cultural Heritage Project top level page |
The purpose of the project is to enable public libraries, archives and museums to provide access for citizens to their cultural holdings and to provide citizens with access to relevant local content. The emphasis is on access and preservation issues are also addressed.
The development of a national policy for the digitisation of cultural heritage content was influenced by a number of EU initiatives including eEurope 2002, the adoption of the Lund Principles [2] and the following formation of the National Representatives Group, and the experience of participating in the 5th Framework Programme take-up action Activate [3].
At national level, in 1998 the Branching Out report [4] recommended that a digitisation programme would provide access to digitised content of local studies holdings across the country. The Digicult report [5] also recommended that national, regional and local governments should support wide-focus projects aiming at delivering consistent, methodical approaches to the digitisation of cultural material. The Branching Out Steering Committee established the Cultural Heritage Panel to investigate delivering this objective.
Following a proposal from the Panel, in March 2002 the Department of the Environment and Local Government approved a funding for a six month project to work with library authorities. The project aims are to:
In June 2002, The Heritage Council granted an additional funding to include museums and archives in the project.
The project will establish a comprehensive and up-to-date record of the local studies holdings in public libraries. It will prioritise content in terms of access and conservation, and will investigate co-operation in relation to shared access to selected collections with the National Library, the National Archives and the National Museum, academic institutions and Northern Ireland repositories, among others. The project will survey digital initiatives and will examine copyright and reproductive rights issues. An assessment of the current position in relation to digitisation of local newspapers, automated indexing, indexing standards and common portals will be included in the survey.
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| Figure 2: AskAboutIreland Gazetteer page |
An important aspect of the Cultural Heritage Project is the selection and execution, in co-operation with players in the libraries sector, of three Pilot Projects. These Pilot Projects are to address key issues in the digitisation process as well as establish local expertise in content selection, digitisation, web publication, etc. Two additional projects, aimed at the museum and archive sectors and funded by The Heritage Council have been added to the scope of the Cultural Heritage Project.
The call for proposals for digitisation pilot projects from local authorities closed last July. The aims of the pilot projects are:
There was a very good response from libraries, museums and archives to the Call for Proposals for the Cultural Heritage Project. The standard of the proposals was excellent and showed a clear understanding of the objectives of the project.
The following five proposals were selected for funding:
Negotiations with the selected proposers have been completed. A training week for their project teams has been organised by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna and will take place in early October.
In parallel with the five pilot projects, a national thematic network on "The Big House: aspects of the landed estates" will also be set up. Local studies librarians through newly established regional groups will work with the project team to select and prepare content which will be accessible via the portal site. In addition to providing exciting content on the Web, this pilot project will provide library authorities with a certain level of expertise in relation to digitisation and will also provide broadly based knowledge for the overall project. It is hoped that all local authority libraries will be represented in, and benefit from, this project.
An important aspect of the project will be to provide recommendations and guidelines on a National Digitisation Programme in a final report. The final report will be presented at a national information day to a wide representation of the memory institutions and policy makers.
Further details on the Cultural Heritage Project and its activities are available from Annette Kelly and/or Domitilla Fagan .
Annette Kelly
Assistant Director
An Chomhairle Leabharlanna/The Library Council
53 & 54 Upper Mount Street
Dublin 2, Ireland
Telephone +353 1 6761963 / 67611167
Fax +353 1 6766721
URL: <http://www.librarycouncil.ie/>
Email: akelly@librarycouncil.ie
Annette Kelly is Assistant Director of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna/The Library Council. She has academic and public library experience before being appointed to The Library Council. She is a national advisor on the development of library buildings and services.
She is a member the Branching Out Steering Committee which is the development plan for public libraries in Ireland and Chairman of the Cultural Heritage Panel. She is Chairman of the Public Library Research Programme Committee. She manages the information dissemination function for the Fifth Framework Programme accompanying measure CULTIVATE . She is Secretary of the Euro-Focus on the Cultural Heritage which operates the Irish national node in CULTIVATE.
Annette Kelly is currently Project Manager of the Branching Out Cultural Heritage National Digitisation Project and is a member of the Permanent Representative Group on the EU Coordination of Digital Policy Programmes She has been involved in a number of EU funded research projects, IRIS, Europagate, Universe and is now managing the Fifth Framework project Activate .
Domitilla
Fagan
Executive Librarian
An Chomhairle Leabharlanna/The Library Council
53 & 54 Upper Mount Street
Dublin 2, Ireland
Telephone +353 1 6761963 / 67611167
Fax +353 1 6766721
URL: <http://www.librarycouncil.ie/>
Email: dfagan@librarycouncil.ie
Domitilla Fagan is Executive Librarian of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna / The Library Council. She assists in the management of the co-operation functions of An Chomhairle.
She is Secretary of the Public Library Research Programme Committee and of the Cultural Heritage Panel. She assists the information dissemination function for the Fifth Framework Programme accompanying measure CULTIVATE and she is responsible for the editing of its Web site.
Domitilla Fagan is currently Project Officer of the Branching Out Cultural Heritage National Digitisation Project.
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For citation purposes:
Kelly,A. and Fagan,D. "Not only Shamrocks: Digitising Local Studies Material in Ireland", Cultivate Interactive, issue
8, 15 November 2002
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue8/digitisation/>
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