MINERVA — Ministerial NEtwo Rk for Valorising Activities

MINERVA - Ministerial NEtwo. Rk for Valorising Activities in digitisation Towards an Agreed European Platform for Digitisation of Cultural and Scientific Heritage Giuliana De Francesco Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali CIDOC 2005 Zagreb, 24 -27 May Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb

MINERVA framework e. Europe Initiative (december 1999) • to foster the Internet and new economy across Europe • allow citizens to participate in the information society e. Europe Action Plan (June 2000) 3 d) European digital cultural content for global networks Lund Meeting, 4 April 2001 meeting of experts and representatives of EU Member States to stimulate European cultural content for global networks Lund Principles Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 2

Lund Principles Digitisation of heritage resources crucial to: • provide improved access to cultural heritage • preserve Europe's collective cultural heritage • sustain cultural diversity in a global environment • also key resource for education and for the tourism and media industries To achieve e. Europe objectives: • ongoing forum for coordination of digitisation policies • support a European view on policies and programmes • exchange and promote good practices, guidelines and skills • work in a collaborative manner to make visible and accessible the digitised cultural heritage of Europe Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 3

National Representatives Group NRG: representatives appointed by Member States’ authorities • to coordinate digitisation policies and programmes • to guarantee a close relationship between the Ministries or other governmental institutions and the EC • to assure that EC policies and programmes have a widespread diffusion in every country • to be the voice of national policies and programmes at European level – to allow visibility to national initiatives The NRG meets every 6 months co-chaired by the rotating EU Presidency and the EC Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 4

MINERVA - Ministerial NEtwo. Rk for Valorising Activities in digitisation A network of Member States’ Ministries: • to discuss, correlate and harmonise activities in digitisation of cultural and scientific content • to create a common European platform made up of agreed recommendations, guidelines and standards • to promote awareness and exchange of experiences and skills at European level § to enlarge the network and establish further international cooperation MINERVA is a collaborate operative framework for implementing Lund Action Plan and organising its working groups (support to NRG) Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 5

MINERVA Funded by the EC IST 5 th FP (2002– 2005) Started with 8 partners, representing 7 countries: Italy, coordinator (Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali) Belgium (Ministère de la communauté française) Finland (University of Helsinky) France (Ministère de la culture et de la communication) Spain (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte) Sweden (Riksarkivet) United Kingdom (Museums, Archives and Libraries Council) Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 6

MINERVA Plus Funded by EC IST 6 th FP (2004 -2005) Enlarges the network including NAS countries, sharing MINERVA objectives 18 partners representing 14 countries Austria Czech Republic Estonia Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Israel Italy Malta Poland Portugal Russia Slovenia Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 7

MINERVA Network The remaining 6 EU countries: Cyprus Denmark Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg The Netherlands have a membership agreement and take part on a regular basis to NRG and MINERVA activities • MINERVA is a network of the 25 EU Member States’ ministries + Russia and Israel • Italy coordinates the network Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 8

NRG – Charter of Parma • strategic document, continues and supports Lund Principles • approved at the 5 th NRG meeting in Parma (2003) Printed: eng – fre - ita Online: eng – fre – ger – gre – ita – slk http: //www. minervaeurope. org/structure/nrg/documents/ charterparma 031119 final. htm Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 9

Charter of Parma - Articles Art. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Intelligent use of new technologies Accessibility Quality IPR and privacy Interoperability and standards Inventories and multiligualism Benchmarking Cooperation at national, European and international levels Art. 9 Enlargement Art. 10 Building the future together: at the forefront of the knowledge society Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 10

NRG Global Report Progress report of the National Representatives Group Coordinating Digitisation in Europe 1 st (2002) http: //www. minervaeurope. org/publications/ globalreport/globalrep 2002. htm 2 nd (2003) includes contributions from NAS, Israel and Russia http: //www. minervaeurope. org/publications/ globalreport/globalrep 2003. htm 3 rd (2004) under print Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 11

MINERVA technical WPs • WP 3 Inventories, discovery of digitised content, multilingualism issues • WP 4 Interoperability, service provision, IPR • WP 5 User needs, quality framework for common access points • WP 6 Good practice and competence centres Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 12

WP 3 Inventories and multilingualism Inventories, discovery of digitised content, multilingualism issues « MINERVA+ specific topic: multilingual thesauri Key issues: • Inventories of digital content and digitisation projects needed both for management and strategic issues and to enable access to European scientific and cultural digital contents • Multilingualism issues Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 13

Inventories products Specifications for Inventories of Digitised Content • • metadata set for inventories of digital collections Definition of a data model and a metadata set for invetories of digital content Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 14

Inventories products French-Italian Prototype Portal of Digital Collections • Specifications implemented through the open source platform used by the French Inventory project MICHAEL: a MINERVA spin-off project Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 15

WP 4 Interoperability, service provision, IPR «MINERVA+ specific topic: business models for digitisation programmes Key issues: • Technical and metadata standards to support interoperability, long term preservation, access, security of digital resources Recommendations on OAI DC. Culture • IPR Round Tables Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 16

Interoperability products Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmes In print: eng – fre – ita Online: eng – fre http: //www. minervaeurope. org/publications/ technicalguidelines. htm • not a single prescriptive set of requirements to which all projects must conform • identify areas where there is broad agreement –Flexible, context-specific requirements might be built –Conceived for policy-makers and funding programmes –Can be used for self-assessment by projects Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 17

Interoperability products TG structure: ‘life cycle’ approach • Preparation for digitisation (Hardware, Software, Environment) • Metadata creation/capture • Publication (Delivery formats, 3 D and Virtual Reality Issues, GIS, websites) • Handling of originals • Disclosure of resources • The digitisation process (Metadata harvesting, Distributed searching) • Storage and management of • Re-use and re-purposing the digital master material (Learning resource creation) (File formats, Preservation • Intellectual property rights strategies) and Copyright (Identifying, recording and managing IPR, Safeguarding IPR) Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 18

WP 5 Quality Identification of user needs, quality framework for common access points « MINERVA+ specific topic: small cultural institutions requirements Key steps: • Brussels Quality Framework (December 2001) • Parma Quality Conference (November 2003) • Berlin Quality Conference (April 2005) Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 19

Quality products - 1 Handbook for Quality in Cultural Websites: Improving Quality for Citizens Version 1. 2 – Draft, November 2003 Printed: eng - ita Online: eng – ita http: //www. minervaeurope. org/ publications/ qualitycriteria. htm • - Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC Focussed on content Intelligent use of the Web as an effective mean for the communication of culture Quality as the result of interaction between cultural organisations and users Accessibility and usability CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 20

Quality products - 2 Cultural Website Quality Principles “A quality cultural website celebrates European cultural diversity by providing access for all to digital cultural content” A quality website must be: transparent effective maintained accessible user centred Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC responsive multilingual interoperable managed preserved CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 21

Quality products - 2 Ten Principle Cards Printed: eng – fre - ger – hol - ita Online: eng - fre - gre – spa – est – hun – ita – slo - slk http: //www. minervaeurope. org/ publications/tenqualityprinciples. htm Front page: 10 Quality Principles Back page: Short explanation Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 22

Quality products - 3 Quality Principles for Cultural Websites: a Handbook (2005) Printed: eng; fre and ita under preparation Online: eng – gre – hun http: //www. minervaeurope. org/publications/ qualitycommentary_en. htm • A set of practical and pragmatic criteria • Can be used to gain further insight into the compliance with the Principles • A checklist, based on the critera, can be used in assessing the website Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 23

Quality products - Practical tools Museo&Web - Planning Kit for a Quality Site for Small and Medium Sized Museums • Based on – Quality handbooks – W 3 C accessibility guidelines • Will follow: - Planning kit for schools - Planning kit for libraries Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 24

WP 6 Good Practice Good practice and competence centres Ø MINERVA+ specific topic: digitisation cost reduction Key issues: • Identification of competence and advisory centres on digitisation • Promotion of good practices developed within Member State programmes and project – First selection of good practices (2002) – New campaign started 2004. Submission forms available on MINERVA website Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 25

Good practice products Good Practice Handbook Printed: eng, fre, ita Online: ger – eng – gre - Fr – It – Por – Slk http: //www. minervaeurope. org/structure/workinggroups/ goodpract/document/goodpractices 1_3. htm • A practical handbook to the establishment, execution and management of digitisation projects • Target: teams within and across cultural institutions planning, or executing, digitisation projects • Complemented by the collection of existing guidelines on digitisation, available online in MINERVA website Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 26

International cooperation: cultural networks Coordination between the European cultural networks in the field of digital culture promoted by MINERVA aiming at: • Sharing knowledge and exchanging experience • Merging efforts together to maximise the impact of the individual projects • Adopting common standards and agendas • Avoiding duplication of effort and waste of resources • Evolving towards a common European research area Cooperation has been established with: BRICKS – CALIMERA – DELOS – DIGICULT – EMII DCF – EPOCH – ERPANET - EUROMED HERITAGE II – EVA – HEREIN – MINERVA – MUSICNETWORK –PRESTOSPACE - SCRAN Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 27

International cooperation: UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) – MINERVA participation to IFAP St. Petersburg and Petropavlovsk annual conferences – MINERVA participation in the IFAP board meeting (October 2004) • MEDCULT project, for dissemination of MINERVA products within Arab-speaking Mediterranean countries of the STRABON network, approved by IFAP board (April 2005) Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 28

International cooperation: UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science in Europe – ROSTE • Joint organisation of the SEE Regional Meeting on Digitisation of Cultural Heritage (Ohrid, 17 -20 March 2005), in cooperation with the FYROM Ministry of Culture • Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYROM, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro Set of Recommendations on digitisation of cultural heritage in South-Eastern Europe that will be adopted as an official UNESCO document Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 29

Ohrid outcome • Proposal of training actions on digitisation in South-Eastern Europe • Supported by MINERVA • Submitted to EC in the framework of Marie Curie programme for knowledge transfer Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 30

Find out more! www. minervaeurope. org contact details: defrancesco@beniculturali. it Thank you for your kind attention Giuliana De Francesco, Mi. BAC CIDOC 2005 - Zagreb 31