Fears, Risks, Challenges and Opportunities in the Digitisation of Cultural Collections

1. Fears, Risks, Challenges and Opportunities in the Digitisation of Cultural Collections 28.10.2010, Barcelona, Spain

2. Structure • Why do museums make their (digitised) collections available online? • How do museums make their (digitised) collections available online? • Europeana.eu – Europe‘s digital library, museum and archive • Fears & Risks or Challenges & Opportunities? 2

3. Why do museums make their (digitised) collections available online? 3

4. Mission of Cultural institutions • Museums, Archives and Libraries are holders of our cultural and scientific heritage • It is and has always been an important part in the mission of these institutions to make their collections available for the interested public. • Digital age and the Internet changes the traditional way, cultural institutions work. • Providing access to digitised works to interested user groups on a wider base than before is the most promising opportunity made possible by digitisation. 4

5. The challenge in the provision of digitised data • Digitisation is an enourmous challenge for institutions which have before been in charge for the “analogue” cultural heritage. • Creating and maintaining digital collections is expensive. • Digitisation is new – and not the core competence of the cultural sector: The cultural sector may lack resources, technology and competences for this new responsibility. • The institutions do not always have the rights to publish cultural assets in the Internet. 5

6. The approach in the provision of digitised data • Cultural institutions have an educative function. The access and use of cultural digital content for educational or scientific and non-commercial purpose shall be for free. • Commercial uses and purposes are often subject to a charge. Museums are requested to claim a percentage of the profit made by third parties (for example by political bodies), to regenerate at least a percentage of their digitisation investment. 6

7. Works from the Non-Public-Domain • Rights holders have to agree to the use in the digitised form and museums must acquire the rights for the use in the digital form • „Orphan works“- Right holders can not be identified- In cases, rights are transmitted to collecting societies or other third parties, licenses have to be negotiated between the cultural institution and the right holder 7

8. Where do museums make their (digitised) collections available online? 8

9. Online access to museum collections • institutional websites or object databases, i.e. „Stadtgeschichtl. Museum Leipzig“ with 260.000 objects online (http://www.stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de/site_deutsch/ sammlungen/objektdatenbank.php) • on joint portals like BAM-Portal (4 million items, http://www.bam-portal.de (libraries archives and museums) • on the international level e.g. europeana.eu 9

10. Europeana.euEurope‘s digital library, museum and archive 10

11. What is Europeana? Acommon access point to Europe’s digital cultural and scientific heritage Surprise “A digital library that is a single, direct and multilingual access point to the European cultural heritage.” European Parliament, 27 September 2007 “A unique resource for Europe's distributed cultural heritage… ensuring a common access to Europe's libraries, archives and museums.” Horst Forster, Director, Digital Content & Cognitive Systems Information Society Directorate, European Commission Title: Surprise! man standing behind a woman covering her eyes Description: Size: 28.5 x 20.5 cm (Outer Border: 45.5 x 34 cm.) Source: Bowes-OAI Provider: CultureGrid ;  Uk Identifier: http://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/collections/objects/category/11/7600/ Subject: 1706 Type: Image Relation: Bowes Museum

12. Basics • Europeana.eu is a prototype portal • Launched in November 2008 • Currently hosting 13 million digital objects • Interface in the 23 languages of the EU • All of the 27 countries in the EU are represented Title: Wilkinson Rasierhobel Date: 1. Drittel 20. Jahrhundert;  1901;  1933 Creator: Wilkinson Brothers Description: Rasierhobel gibt es nachweislich seit 1883/84. Sie waren vor der Erfindung der Sicherheitsrasierer durch King C. Gillette üblich. Um 1900 hingen viele Menschen der Idee an, dass durch das Ruhen des Rasiermessers oder der Klingen für die Zeit von einer Woche sie von sich aus sie wieder scharf werden. Deshalb stellten die Hersteller Rasiermesser stets für eine ganze Woche her oder die austauschbaren Klingen für Montag bis Sonntag. Die Namenstage wurden den Messern oder den Klingenhaltern eingeätzt oder eingestanzt. Der Behälter hat unter dem Griff den eingerollten Lederriemen versteckt. Sollte die Klinge sich nicht "erholt" haben, konnte sie mit Hilfe des hidden strop/Leder und des Rasierers selbst wieder geschärft werden. Der Kopf des Rasierhobels ist versilbert oder aus Silberstahl. Markie... Schriftzug (Deckel innen: Hersteller, Klingenhalter (Wochentage), Leder) Format: H: 4,3 cm, T: 5,6 cm, B: 12,5 cm (Behälter);  Weißblech; Weißblech; Silberstahl; Leder; Leder; Seide; Seidengewebe; Seide; Bakelit; Bakelite; Stahl; Stahl; gegossen; Metallguss; gestanzt; Stanzen; geformt; gebohrt; geschraubt; Schraubenverbindung; jpg Source: Frisörmuseumhttp://www.museen-sh.de/ml/inst.php?inst=10010001563 Rights: Frisörmuseum Provider: digiCULT-Verbund ;  Germany Identifier: 10010001563_Rh48;  Rh48 Type: Bart;  Haarpflege;  Haar- und Bartpflege;  Körperpflege;  Pflege;  Rasierhobel • Features • Navigation in range of languages • My Europeana section • Partners section (list of data providers) • Thought lab (semantic search engine) • Advanced search • Browse through time • Online exhibitions • UGC

13. How does Europeana work?Europeana Group of Projects Archives Culture.fr APENET Libraries MLAs The European Library Cultura.it European Film Gateway www.bam-portal.de ATHENA Museums Euscreen MLAs Film archives TV archives MLAs 13

14. Piazza san marco venetie or venice or venetia 14

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16. 1. Thumbnails 2. Metadata 16

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18. Europeana provides access • Europeana’s aims to provide access to the European cultural heritage. • europeana.eu publishes Meta-data and connects to the content providers, but the content providers keep the digitised object • In its access and re-use terms Europeana follows the policies of its content providers. Each content provider is legally responsible for deciding the terms on which they make content available, and for determining and clearing any rights in their content. • Consequently, there are a wide range of practices among institutions providing Public Domain content to Europeana. 18

19. The Europeana Public Domain Charta http://version1.europeana.eu/web/europeana-project/publications 19

20. Fears & RisksorChallenges & Opportunities?

21. Fears & Risksin the digitisation of cultural collections How do commercial parties, which benefit by digitisation, contribute to the costs of digitisation? The cultural institutions are requested by responsible political bodies to regenerate at least parts of their digitisation efforts. That is why, commercial use is often subject of a charge.

22. Challengesin the digitisation of cultural collections Amount/Comprehensiveness of cultural assets to digitise Digitisation will be a long term exercise for cultural institutions and connected with a intense involvement of human resources The technical and financial challenges of digitisation

23. Opportunitiesin the digitisation of cultural collections The chance to reasonably increase the range and the accessibility of the collections.Beyond the single institution and its location, digitisation raises the accessibility of cultural assets for worldwide groups of interested users. Networking & educational mission Independently from ones location or personal mobility, it gets possible to bring people in contact with the collections and to strengthen the educational function of the cultural institutions.

24. Thank you very much! If you like to contact us: • Thorsten Siegmannt.siegmann@smb.spk-berlin.de • Prof. Monika Hagedorn-Saupem.hagedorn@smb.spk-berlin.de 24