Digital Cooperation in European Cultural Institutions: Bridging the Local and Virtual Divide

1. Europe’s local cultural institutions- co-operating in a digital environment Rob Davies MDR, UK

2. e-Europe 2005: an Information Society for All: Action Plan • Dynamic business environment, investment, jobs, productivity • Modern public services • e-government, e-learning, e-health • e-inclusion • digital skills, lifelong learning, public access points, special needs, access in remote areas • Applications and content • Broadband infrastructure • widely available, competitively priced • Secure information infrastructure

3. e-Europe: how to get there? • Exchange of experience • Good practices, demonstration projects, share lessons from failures • Accelerate roll-out of leading edge applications and infrastructure • Connect public administrations to broadband • Interactive public services • Accessible for all, multiple platforms • Benchmarking and co-ordination

4. Libraries, museums and archives: starting points and trends • Total registered public library members - 190 million • Different traditions: variations in public library and archive usage • 2000 European average public libraries 24%; CEE 15% • 13% Slovakia - 62% Denmark • what performance level will attract funding? • Competition - multi-channel tv, Internet • In wealthier countries - purchasing replacing lending (books, CD-ROMS, DVDs , games) • Remote usage increase - loans and visits decrease • Museums universally popular ? • Archives ‘statutory’ role?

5. Service expansion in local institutions Virtual (Web-based) and ‘physical’ • Digital divide - IT skills • Learning access and support • Employment skills • Socially excluded groups • Citizens information services • Family and local history • Reading promotion

6. Digitisation • Convergence of content in cyberspace • Lund Principles • Preservation and access • Minerva • policies, standards and tools • Smaller local institutions

7. Cooperation and partnership • Between cultural institutions (libraries, museums and archives) • national co-ordination [UK, Norway]

9. Cooperation and partnership • Between cultural institutions (libraries, museums and archives) • national co-ordination [UK, Norway] • Within local authorities • Integration with other local authority services • Virtual Service Environments?

11. Cooperation and partnership • Between cultural institutions (libraries, museums and archives) • national co-ordination [UK, Norway] • Within local authorities • Integration with other local authority services • Virtual Service Environments? • Between public libraries and other libraries

13. Cooperation and partnership • Between cultural institutions (libraries, museums and archives) • national co-ordination [UK, Norway] • Within local authorities • Integration with other local authority services • Virtual Service Environments? • Between public libraries and other libraries • With NGOs • With learning organisations • With industry

14. Types of partnership • Strategic/development partnerships • national, regional or local levels. • Regional or location-based • Domain-based (eg learning) • Activity-based (eg for service delivery, preservation, training, IT development and purchasing)

15. Europe’s research and development agenda for local services IST research programme • 5th Framework Programme [cultural heritage applications] • Minerva • PULMAN (and PULMAN-XT) • 6th Framework Programme • Large IPs and NoEs • CALIMERA • Co-ordination Action • MinervaPLUS [candidate countries] • Community Memory programme

16. PULMAN - Objectives • Strengthen performance, help achieve potential of public libraries: new cultural, educational and social roles in eEurope • Exchange knowledge, experience, good practice: encourage Centres of Excellence for digital services • Spread strategic initiatives across Europe: sensitise national authorities and practitioners • Develop cross-sectoral agendas for local services: starting from a public libraries standpoint

17. PULMAN • Public libraries driven..but also linkages with museums and archives • State of the Union • Benchmarking/country reports [38 countries] • Trends and forecasts • Final Project Report • Influence policy makers and professionals • Oeiras Conference - Manifesto, March 2003 • National and training workshops • NAPLE/Eblida • European Cross-domain meetings • Monitoring the Oeiras Manifesto • 10 Point Action Plan

18. The PULMAN Guidelines • Identify best practice • guidelines [2 editions, 22 languages] • new, digital services • social policy, management , technical • 20 topics • 100,000 words • 650 links to good practice across Europe

21. One Websitewww.pulmanweb.org

22. CALIMERA: main goals • Prepare Community Memory Research agenda for local services [call 2004] • Turn IST research outcomes into helpful digital services for ordinary people • Digitally-based services which support policy agendas • Mobilise public libraries, local museums and archives to make best use of existing technologies • Extend best practice/guidelines • Sensitise decision makers • Work with industry to improve delivery of solutions • Policy work • Focus on the needs of the end user • Usability roadmap for new technologies • Impact

23. CALIMERA: basic facts • 18 months • expected start December 2003 • 46 partners - local organisations, national authorities, research centres • financial coordinator Lisbon; scientific co-ordinator MDR • Oton Zupancic library, Ljubljana • Three ‘reference networks’ from each country: • local authority-based professionals [builds on PULMAN country co-ordinators + archives , museums] • national authorities • industrial partners - the suppliers of local institutions

24. CALIMERA in each country • Country Co-ordination Groups • Active, innovative people • Public Libraries, Museums and Archives • Spread the news • Supply information • Interact with policymakers and industry • Breda Karun

25. Community Memory: what’s in it for the ordinary user? • Local identity in Europe + increased exploration of remote resources • Promotion of social and cultural inclusion • e.g. through access to local, ethnic and linguistic cultural heritage and family history • Comprehensive living archive of local activities, occupations, interests and cultural attractions • Enhanced ability to link up present needs and interests with an awareness of their historical context

26. Community Memory: what’s in it for the end user (2)? • Concentrating on the contributions of ordinary people to development of the Information Society • Addressing the digital divide by improving the delivery of services • Tackling educational disadvantage and helping deal with demographic changes • Ultimately, access from any home and any vehicle in Europe to local cultural content

27. Community Memory: what should it be support? • Interactivity - information in both drections • Motivation - fun for the user • Creativity - the user can contribute in the form of stories, pictures, video - photos or art work, music or voice,

28. Types of cultural content • Existing resources of Cultural Memory Organisations • eg oral testimonies, memorabilia and cultural objects in the care of individuals and communities • Generation of new digital content by virtual communities and individuals • meet specific local information and learning needs: • Culture is 'everything we do’ • interfaces between culture and knowledge, learning, information for everyday life • Music • Newer content forms e.g. Multimedia, VR/3D

29. Technologies? What for? • Lower-cost and efficient digitisation • Preservation and access to digital cultural objects • Easy content authoring • quality management • Creation of packaged resources eg for learning, tourism promotion • Seamless, one-stop searching and discovery of distributed resources and services • Promoting interactive communication and transactions with government

30. What technologies? • Personalisation of content creation and access • Multimedia access and delivery • Virtual and augmented reality/ simulation • 'virtual visits' to local cultural institutions • Devices (digitv, mobiles, cameras) and infrastructure • (standalone, GSM, 3G, Wi-Fi, broadband) • Location-based technologies eg GPS • Terminologies (semantic web) • ontologies, controlled vocabularies, classification systems, etc to help local professionals and ordinary end-users • Developing ‘web services’ models • reduce the cost of service integration and delivery • IPR and digital cultural asset management

31. Some questions • Standards • what can be done to make them easier to adopt for local institutions? • What priority given to ensuring a critical mass of digitisation for local institutions - how to afford? • Simplicity of use • Metadata or Google? • Technology can move on too fast for people • sensibility, training for the end-user is needed. • 'Downward scalability’ • Business models - • should you charge for digital services eg membership

32. Getting real money for innovation • Pilot services and roll-out • National programmes needed • challenge funding/bidding culture • ESF/ERDF • candidate states preparing • EQUAL programme • Learning, social inclusion, employment skills • 3 libraries projects out of 1300 • LearnEast

34. Conference outcome? What is the way forward for local services in Slovenia?