Enhancing local heritage to implement a global Information Society

1. Enhancing local heritage to implement a global Information Society 25 small-scale trial projects with a great potential Concertation Meeting - Heritage for All Luxembourg, 2-3 June 2003

2. The context 2000 Call for Proposals within the Cultural Heritage Sector of the European Commission: ACTION LINE III.1.5: • ☞ Trials on new access models to cultural and scientific content

3. The objectives • Encourage take-up of results of research • Improve access by a wider public to cultural and scientific assets in museums, libraries and archives through the use of innovative technologies

4. The actors 25 take-up trial projects and TRIS

5. Something in common with the Heritage for All projects… • Focus on local cultural heritage • Attention to the user and single citizen • Constituencies: cultural/educational institutions + technology providers • Addressing a broad range of user communities

6. Distinguishing characteristics of the take-up trial projects • ‘Lightweight’ projects with a short duration and a relatively small budget • Do not involve research but experimentation with existing technologies to enhance access to cultural resources • Driven by small- sized local cultural institutions

7. CTIC - Common Threads: Collections & Connections in Cyberspace

8. CTIC A prototype web-based interface networking local costume & textile museum’s collections

9. CTIC - Objectives Developing a prototype web-based interface networking local costume & textile museum’s collections: • Photo-realistic 2D and 3D objects, which can be rotated under the control of the user • Panoramic vistas (360°) giving the user the impression of being physically present in the museum • Interpretative text held in a database

10. CTIC

11. CTIC - Results • Over 3,594 images captured with resource management metadata • 3D image objects produced for all museums and added to the site • New web site: www.commonthreads.org.uk/

12. POUCE - Portails Culturels Collectifs

13. POUCE Museolog, a museum inventory tool for local museums offering: • A joint Web portal providing access to their collections over the web • A collection management system

14. POUCE - Results • Currently used in the six museums of the POUCE consortium as a cataloguing tool • Future integration of a virtual exhition function • Conducting market research in some EC countries to make it a commercial product

15. ACTIVATE New Access & Services for Cultural Content

16. Activate - Objectives • Developing thematic networks, That is to say: web-based networks of related content sites that link to and can be accessed from a single central and searchable portal

17. Activate Participating Libraries building a thematic network of local history Scattery Island - Clare Tallaght - Dublin Goldsmith - Longford Shandon -Cork Pierce’s foundry - Wexford John Roberts – Waterford Art Collection - Donegal

18. Activate - Results • Freely available and easy to use instructions and software (templates) for creating thematic networks • An online cultural heritage network (Irish Local Studies Portal) • A VRML tour of a cultural landscape as a “shop window” product

19. BEASTS Boosting the Economy by Assisting SMEs in the Tourism Sector

20. BEASTS - Objectives • Helping SMEs in rural areas to exploit the potential of electronic commerce and national cultural resources by: • Training managers from selected SMEs in rural areas of Wales to make use of technology and national archival materials to market their products and services via the WWW

21. BEASTS - Results • Developed specialised templates with links to digitalised materials • Developed easy to use interfaces to allow selected trial companies to create and enhance their own web sites • Performed a quality criteria mechanism, to ensure the integrity and quality of the information and services offered by the SMEs

22. SEAX-DAMAS - Essex Archives on-line

23. SEAX-DAMAS- Objectives Improving access to content of local archives: • To refine and test the Archives Management System of the Essex Record Office (SEAX), UK • To install the system in the Northamptonshire Record Office, UK

24. SEAX-DAMAS - Results & prospects • Converted all the Essex Record Office catalogues • Converted catalogues currently comprise about 80,000 A4 pages and continue to grow • Digital images of documents, maps and photographs are being added to the database • Currently evaluating market potential of the system in Europe

25. Towards a ‘Community Memory’ Safeguarding the Memory of local communities in a global world: • Preserving their cultural identity • Documenting their local history • Promoting tourism & local products • Exploring their shared heritage

26. Towards a ‘Community Memory’ The Take-up trials and HforA projects have paved the way for: • Promoting and supporting the creation, documentation and safeguarding of digital cultural resources of local communities • Encouraging citizens to benefit from the combination of technology and culture • Fostering take-up projects to develop technology-enhanced services for the end user

27. Towards a ‘Community Memory’ A need to continue in this direction in order to: • Preserve local cultural heritage resources ☞Safeguarding CULTURAL DIVERSITY • Provide new services tailored to the real needs of citizens, thus offering new business opportunities ☞ Boosting ECONOMY • Promote social inclusion through e-learning and enhanced access to information and resources ☞ Enhancing SOCIETY

28. BARBARA MORGANTITRISbarbara@trisweb.org ‘Memory culture is the way a society ensures cultural continuity by preserving, with the help of cultural mnemonics, its collective knowledge from one generation to the next, rendering it possible for later generations to reconstruct their cultural identity’