CULTIVATE - A New Network for Digital Cultural Heritage in Europe

Klaus Reinhardt reports on the establishment of an accompanying measure under the Fifth Framework Programme in the field of digital cultural heritage applications (IST Program), the new "anchor" for libraries, archives and museums.

Introduction

Under the Third and Fourth Framework Programmes a network of National Focal Points (NFPs) was established in all EU Member States and most of the associated states for the Telematics for Libraries Programme. In the Fifth Framework Programme, which began recently, the structure has changed. The "old" Telematics Programme is part of the Information Society Technology Programme (IST) - and there is no longer a "libraries area". The only place you can find the word "libraries" (together with archives and museums) in the IST Programme is in Key Action III: Multimedia Content and Tools, sub-area Digital Content and Cultural Heritage.

CULTIVATE is the answer for the need for a newly structured network supporting the co-operation of archives, libraries and museums under the Fifth Framework Programme. This network is planned to have two parts: CULTIVATE-EU for the western part of Europe and CULTIVATE-CEE for the ten accession countries in Central and Eastern Europe. CULTIVATE-EU has been positively evaluated and negotiated. It will start its 36 months lifetime in February 2000. CULTIVATE-CEE is expected following some months later.

Objectives

CULTIVATE-EU will establish a European Cultural Heritage Network consisting of 15 partners based in 12 European countries. It will continue the successful and fruitful work carried out by the National Focal Points for the Telematics for Libraries Programme under the Third and Fourth Framework Programmes and will expand it to all memory institutions, namely archives, museums and galleries.

The network intends:

• To raise the awareness of the IST Programme for the development and the use of cultural heritage applications in all memory institutions in Europe.
• To enhance the quantity and quality of submitted proposals under the IST programme by various means like electronic information services, information days and individual advice for proposers.
• To link European institutions with national administrative bodies and professional organisations and institutions in order to link European activities and directives to its citizens.

Description of Work

After setting up the CULTIVATE-EU national nodes with representatives from relevant memory institutions and organisations in each participating country these nodes and their Web presence will be linked. The dissemination of information will be supported by an electronic information service at European level and by the production of sector specific information material in printed and electronic form. To reflect the state-of-the art of cultural heritage applications in Europe as well as to present and to discuss the results achieved by CULTIVATE-EU an electronic web-based magazine will be developed. All partners will be responsible for (EU non-costed) sector specific information days and consultancy tasks for (potential) proposers. Activities linking European Cultural heritage policy and directives to administrative and professional bodies at national level will bridge the gap between the thematic work on European and on national level. A close co-operation with national nodes of Western European countries not participating in the CULTIVATE-EU consortium and institutions of the ten CEE accession countries is an essential part of the measure. The accompanying measure will be managed by the DBI, (German Libraries Institute) as the co-ordinating partner.

Consortium

Details of the Consortium members are given in the following table.

*C = Co-ordinator P - Principal contractor S - Sub-contractor

Working Structure

The European dimension of the accompanying measure can be seen from its working structure. DBI, Berlin, (German Libraries Institute) will be the coordinating partner and the national node for Germany. All the other partners (excluding UKOLN, UK Office for Library and Information Networking) are national nodes for Cultural Heritage Applications in their countries and will coordinate activities in their national network. They will also be active in a cooperation at a European level.

Some of the national nodes are also leading partners for tasks of European dimension:

• CL (The Library Council, Ireland)
• LIC (Library and Information Commission, UK)
• CSC (Cultural Service Centre Austria)
• RBT (National Office for Research Documentation, Academic and Special Libraries).

Another participant is ILRT (Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol, UK) which is a sub-contractor of The Library Council, Ireland which is responsible for providing the main CULTIVATE web service.

The information work to be carried out at European level consists of five main tasks:

1. Establishment and operation of a Web server for all national nodes by The Library Council (Ireland) and IRLT (UK) which will provide links to all national web pages.
2. An electronic information service and discussion list at European level will be provided by LIC (UK) (CULTIVATE-EU e-list).
3. The production of information material either in printed or electronic form will be supported by a database which enables the management of metadata related to the documents as well as the export of data in XML providing a unified production process. The database will be located at CSC (Austria).
4. An electronic magazine, produced by UKOLN (UK) will provide a forum for dissemination and discussion of project results and topics of more general interest for others working in the area of cultural heritage applications.
5. A system for policy dissemination in the area of cultural heritage applications will be established and operated by RBT(Norway).

The DBI, the coordinator of the accompanying measure EXPLOIT in the Telematics for Libraries Programme, will be responsible for the overall management of CULTIVATE-EU. UKOLN already runs the web magazines Ariadne [1] and Exploit Interactive [2] and is now going to publish an web magazine on "European Archives, Libraries and Museums Matters" including the provision of the technical and administrative infrastructure. LIC runs a highly successful electronic mailing list named "lis-european-programmes" [3] with nearly 400 members from nearly every European country. LIC will therefore have the task to establish and operate an European electronic mailing list for information dissemination, partner finding and discussion for the cultural heritage sector. CSC have a very strong information technology competence and will therefore be responsible for the development and agreement of standardisation issues for the common electronic information services. The ILRT (subcontractor to The Library Council, Ireland) has an excellent track record of co-operation with other universities and especially with industrial partners in the development of leading-edge network products and will therefore develop a web-based european-wide information service for the CULTIVATE-EU network. RBT, Norway will bring in their contacts to European and international associations, organisations and institutions relevant to the archives, libraries and museums sector for linking them to European policy. All other participating institutions will be involved in national tasks such as organising information days for proposers and the provision with information material for the expected calls for proposals.

All remaining western European countries not covered by the project consortium have been invited to cooperate with CULTIVATE-EU as associated partner. Interest has already been expressed by institutions from Denmark, France, Iceland, Netherlands and Switzerland.

A proposal for an accompanying measure for the development of a comparable network in the CEE countries (co-ordinated by The British Council) has also been submitted. Both activities were planned together and will work in a close co-operation.

Conclusion

CULTIVATE will continute the initiatives began by the NFPs and the EXPLOIT project under the Telematics for Libraries Programme. In particular Exploit Interactive will operate parallel to the CULTIVATE web magazine in 2000, focused on Telematics for Libraries information. The CULTIVATE web magazine will concentrate on the work under the Fifth Framework Programme in the field of Cultural Heritage. From 2001 it is likely that the CULTIVATE web magazine will replace Exploit Interactive and continue the information dissemination.

References

1. Ariadne, UKOLN,
   <URL:http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/>
2. Exploit Interactive, UKOLN,
   <URL:http://www.exploit-lib.org/>
3. lis-european-programmes, Mailbase,
   <URL:http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/lis-european-programmes/>

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

Author Details

Klaus Reinhardt
Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut
German Libraries
Institute Head of European Libraries Cooperation Unit
Kurt-Schumacher-Damm 12-16 13405 Berlin
Germany

Email: reinhardt@dbi-berlin.de

DBI URL: <http://www.dbi-berlin.de/bib_wes/dbi_euro/eurohome.htm>
EXPLOIT URL: <http://www.dbi-berlin.de/exploit.htm>

Klaus Reinhardt is the coordinator of the accompanying measures EXPLOIT and CULTIVATE-EU. He was the secretary of the National Focal Point Germany under the Telematics for Libraries Programme and member of the EU working party Education and Training, Libraries, Research in the Telematics Applications Program. He is now also the secretary of the German node in CULTIVATE and member of the new EU working party for key action III of the IST Programme (Interactive Publishing; Digital Content and Cultural Heritage; Education and Training; Human Language Technologies; Information Access, Filtering, Analysis and Handling).

For citation purposes:
Reindardt, K.,"CULTIVATE - A New Network for Digital Cultural Heritage in Europe", Exploit Interactive issue 4, January 2000
<URL: http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue4/cultivate/>

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