Shaping Access! More Responsibility for Cultural Heritage
Berlin, Germany | Hamburger Bahnhof
Digitisation offers a great chance to improve the accessibility of cultural heritage immensely and thus to contribute to the knowledge society of the future. As in previous years, also in 2014 we want to discuss the chances, obstacles, challenges and changes that digitisation causes for libraries, archives and museums and their relationships with other institutions, initiatives and businesses. The major focus will be on the analysis of numerous digitisation projects of cultural heritage. What are the results? What was successful? What were problems? Which endeavours failed?
Ten years ago, in October 2004, the Google Books project for the digitisation of great library stocks, began – a project, that was, and still is, controversial both in the US and in Europe. Other approaches like the Open Content Alliance and Europeana can be seen as reactions to Google Books. What are the consequences of Google Books for the routines of libraries and research institutions? Where do other great digitisation projects stand?
One month before that, in September 2004, Wikimedia Commons took off. What is the status of this project? Where does German Digital Library stand two years after their beta-launch? What about the Europeana project? We also want to look at smaller digitisation projects. Which concepts worked? Which did not and why?
The interim result of the diverse projects concerned with digitisation of cultural heritage should give a sober insight into which approaches succeed and which don’t. This will be the premise for the sensible development of the general requirements for the digitization process of cultural heritage.