To mark the start of the e-Culture – Digitisation of Cultural Heritage project, the Minister of Culture, dr. sc. Nina Obuljen Koržinek on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, in the Mimara Museum.
The Minister pointed out that this project will increase access to cultural heritage and will protect it by systematic and permanent storage of content in digital form. She added that the establishment of a single information system will enable users to have unique and standardised access to stored content. She reminded that the Archival Materials and Archives Act provides for the transformation of archival material into a digital form, and the Library and Library Activity Act contains provisions on the digitization of library material.
The Minister pointed out that 41,994,473.90 kuna was allocated for the e-Culture project, 85 of which were % allocated from the European Regional Development Fund, while the rest of the funds were provided from the State Budget. She added that the procedure also includes the adoption of the National Plan for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage by 2025, which puts emphasis on cooperation with other sectoral bodies and other institutions for the purpose of a uniform and cost-effective approach to the digitization of cultural heritage and the use of digital cultural heritage.
The Minister also referred to the conference held on strengthening cooperation in risk management in the field of cultural heritage in Dubrovnik, which highlighted the fact that the growing threats to cultural heritage create the need to use digital technologies for recording, documenting and preserving heritage culture.
State Secretary dr. sc. Ivica Poljičak presented the project components in detail, and the importance of the project for partner institutions was discussed by the Director of the Croatian State Archives Dinko Čutura, the Director-General of the Croatian Radio and Television Kazimir Bačić, the Director of the Museum of Arts and Crafts Miroslav Gašparović and the Director-General of the National and University Library in Zagreb Ivanka Stričević.
The project "e-culture – Digitising cultural heritage" increases the protection and online accessibility of digital cultural content. The aim of the project is to ensure the safe storage of digital cultural content in one place and to allow users unique access to such stored content through the establishment of an appropriate information communication system. In addition to establishing a central system for storing, accessing, aggregating and searching cultural heritage materials, the project develops e-services, standardizes the approach to digitalisation and strengthens the capacity of the archives, libraries and museums (AKM) community. For the successful implementation of the project, the participation of partner institutions from the archives community (HDA), libraries (NSK), museums (MUO) and holders and creators of audio-visual material (HRT) is indispensable. Each partner in the project carries sector-specific skills, expertise and experience necessary to create a common central system and e-services for users of all heritage institutions.
Taken from: https://www.min-kulture.hr/default.aspx?id=24225 (05.03.2020.)
