See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265624305 Progress from National Initiatives towards European Strategies for Digitisation Conference Paper · October 2004 CITATIONS READS 0 8 1 author: Seamus Ross University of Toronto 166 PUBLICATIONS 801 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: DigiCULT View project ERPANET View project All content following this page was uploaded by Seamus Ross on 18 February 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Progress from National Initiatives towards European Strategies for Digitisation Seamus Ross in Towards a Continuum of Digital Heritage: Strategies for a European Area of Digital Cultural Resources Den Haag 15-16 September 2004 organised by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in context of the Netherlands EU Presidency 2004 Cite as: S Ross, 2004, ‘Progress from National Initiatives towards European Strategies for Digitisation’ in Towards a Continuum of Digital Heritage: Strategies for a European Area of Digital Cultural Resources, European Conference, (Den Haag: Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science), pp 88-98. S Ross (Den Haag Paper, Sept 04) -1- Progress from National Initiatives towards European Strategies for Digitisation [1] Seamus Ross, Director HATII and ERPANET, The University of Glasgow & Associate Director of the UK’s Digital Curation Centre[2] Just over three years ago the Lund Principles were agreed with an aim of bringing best practice, coherence, professionalism, and synergy to the digitisation initiatives designed to make accessible and visible the cultural heritage of Europe.[3] Moves to develop and encourage the adoption of the Lund Principles arose from a realisation among Member States that, as: increased availability of high quality eContent would unlock the wealth of cultural and scientific heritage held in Europe’s memory institutions it would thereby make possible new kinds of business opportunities, create resources for research, and provide materials for learning and teaching. If these resources are to be renewable and to serve as intellectual capital for the knowledge economy, their digitisation would need to be managed in ways that will ensure the eContent is of consistent quality, sustainable, interoperable, does not result from duplicate effort, can be made visible on the global networks and makes the most effective use of the labour and financial resources that were expended in the process of its creation. In achieving these objectives memory institutions such as archives, libraries, and museums across Europe all face similar problems with: funding, identification and selection of content for digitisation, knowledge of and access to appropriate technology for conversion, storage, asset management, and long term preservation.[4] After three years of effort it is perhaps time to reflect on the impact that the Lund Principles have had on digitisation initiatives in Europe and on the accessibility and use of eContent. The Lund Principles, and hence this discussion, uses the term digitisation in its broadest sense to cover all aspects of eContent creation, use, and assessment from user needs analysis to selection, to conversion from analogue to digital form [5], to storage, presentation, use, preservation, and impact assessment. 1 I wish to thank the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and in particular Marius Snyders for the opportunity to present this paper at the conference on Towards a Continuum of Digital Heritage: Strategies for a European Area of Digital Cultural Resources in context of the Netherlands EU Presidency 2004. 2 Seamus Ross is Director of the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow (http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk) and Professor of Humanities Informatics and Digital Curation. He is also Principal Director of ERPANET (http://www.erpanet.org). 3 Agreed 4 April 2001 in Lund (Sweden) http://www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_e/digicult/lund_p_browse.htm 4 S Ross (Rapporteur), 2001, Report of an Expert Meeting on European Content in Global Networks, Coordination mechanisms for digitisation programmes, Lund, Sweden. 4 April 2001, ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/digicult/lund- report.pdf. For further information on the development of the Lund Principles see also the following: S Ross (Rapporteur), 2001, Report of the First Meeting of the National Representatives Group, Brussels 11 December 2001 ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/digicult/nrg-1st-meeting-report.doc; S Ross (Rapporteur), 2001, Report of an Expert Meeting on Coordination of National Digitisation Policies & Programmes, Brussels, 17 July 2001, ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/digicult/brussels_report_17_july_2001.doc ; S Ross (Rapporteur), 2000, Report of an Informal meeting on European Digital Content for Global Networks and Co-ordinating Mechanisms, European Commission, Luxembourg, 15 - 16 November 2000, ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/digicult/lund_dossier.pdf (pages 26-38 or 22-34). 5 Throughout this paper we use the terms digitisation and digital representation interchangeably to describe this process. S Ross (Den Haag Paper, Sept 04) -2- It will not be surprising to most of you that initiatives similar to that promoted by Lund are not new. Indeed, they have a long history. On this occasion, a comparison might be drawn between the Carolingian Renaissance and current efforts to promote best practices in the creation of digital content. This year marks the eighth-hundredth anniversary of the death of Alcuin (c.735-804) the exceptional grammarian, theologian, and advisor and friend to kings, nobles, and leading figures in the Church of his day. Just over two decades before his death he travelled from York (in England) to join the court circle of Charlemagne at Aachen [6]. He played a key role in the cultural and intellectual revolution of the late eighth and early ninth centuries on the Continent, commonly referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance[7]. In many ways the success of this intellectual and cultural renaissance was predicated on education, standardisation, communication, and access to authenticated sources. Standardisation, for instance, played an important role as the scriptoria across Charlemagne's Empire, beginning in the 780s, adopted a new script, Carolingian minuscule, consisting of separated and regularly- and well-formed letters [8]. The accuracy and authenticity of their sources was of immense concern to late eighth- and ninth-century thinkers. In fact they were so concerned with the quality of their sources that those new copies of manuscripts which were created in accordance to the 'guidelines' (and I use the term loosely) were marked ex authentico libro. The concentration of the Carolingians on the creation of accurate and verified transmission arose in all likelihood from the realisation that the quality and accuracy of their sources was central to the quality of their understanding and the new knowledge they could create. Likewise, our digitisation work must result in quality resources which will help us to deliver better and better interpretations of our world and our past. It is illustrative to remember that the problems addressed by reforms and developments in the late eighth and early ninth centuries are similar to the kinds of concerns that face us today in considering issues involving digitisation of our cultural and scientific heritage. The cultural and scientific heritage of Europe held in our memory institutions provides a source of raw materials for economic, intellectual, social, and cultural development in the 21st century. The value of these raw materials multiplies when they are available in digital form. In digital form they can, as is widely recognized, serve as sustainable and renewable resources that can be exploited in an ever-increasing diversity of ways. In their digital guise these materials provide core resources for enabling education, supporting life-long learning, underpinning the development of new products by creative industries, contributing to improvements in our quality of life, and through their virtual accessibility helping to foster tourism. In establishing the Lund Principles representatives of the Member States acknowledged that a continuation of approaches 6 The dynamic engagement of Charlemagne, his children, and other members of the court in intellectual discussion is mentioned in Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne and celebrated in two contemporary poems one by Angilbert (Abbot of St Riquier) and another by Theodulf of Orleans both called Ad Carolum regem. This intellectual renaissance permeated well beyond the Court with communities encouraged to establish schools for ‘boys’ and monasteries pressed to cultivate learning. 7 On the Carolingian Renaissance see Rosamond McKitterick, 1983, The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians (London), 140-168 and 208-227. She also cautions about what might be meant by the term ‘court school’. 8 Bernhard Bischoff, 1990, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity & the Middle Ages (Cambridge) and Bernhard Bischoff, 1965, ‘Die Karolingische Minuskel’, in Wolfgang Braunfels, (ed), Karl der Grosse: Werk und Wirkung (Aachen). See also the essays in Rosamond McKitterick (ed), 1994, Carolingian culture: emulation and innovation (Cambridge). S Ross (Den Haag Paper, Sept 04) -3- to digitisation that had become entrenched in the 1990s was fostering fragmentation