Strategies for Institutions: Responding to the Digital Challenge

Abstract

For many years the Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of the Italian Libraries (ICCU) has been involved in the coordination of European and national projects that promote the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural heritage. The main national initiatives are: the National Library Service SBN; Internet Culturale; Culturaltalia. Among the European projects it is worth mentioning: MINERVA; MICHAEL; ATHENA. All these initiatives share a distributed approach, coordination structures at local, regional, and national level, tight liaisons with national digitisation strategies, the active participation of thousands of cultural institutions at every level and sector, and, last but not least, a cross domain approach. Together they foster at the national and European level a positive attitude among archives, libraries, museums. All these efforts have produced a wide range of benefits for stakeholders, including administrations, institutions, users. Collectively, these initiatives have multiplied the methods of access, fostered interoperability of systems, and promoted local initiatives. In 2008, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane encouraged IFLA to organise a conference focusing on digital library users. The proposal was made while considering the valuable experience gained while coordinating important European projects such as MINERVA and MICHAEL in the framework of digital cultural heritage. This contribution intents to explain digital library strategies at the national and European level that were adopted by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities in order to coordinate digitisation initiatives and to promote access to cultural information. The Italian Ministry's strategy is focusing on the integration of existing information systems, on the recovery of databases not in line with current international standards, the creation of web sites and cultural portals.