Home | Access to Diverse Cultural Content (Summary)
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SCOPE

The issues dealt with in this guideline include:
Digital content
The Internet
Public libraries and partnerships
Cultural Community Information and content creation

The process of digitisation of the library’s own holdings is covered under Digitisation 

POLICY ISSUES

See also music & multilingual issues. 

European cultural policy centres around respect for cultural identity and diversity and supports actions designed to stimulate the preservation, development and promotion of culture. This is evident both in the initiatives of the European Union (see: Treaty on the European Union signed on Maastricht – Article 151 and the Council of Europe). (For a discussion on this see the paper by Joost Smiers: The role of the European Community concerning the cultural article 151 in the Treaty of Amsterdam; and Antonio Zapatero: 'Ten years on' Reflections on Article 151 of the EC Treaty: expectations and outcomes, Council of the EU, 12 December 2001.)

In order to implement the above objectives a number of European actions have been initiated, including:

• CULTURE 2000 – a programme passed by the European Parliament on February 14, 2000, and designed for the years 2000 and 2004 to promote the common European cultural zone through the promotion of co-operation, cultural dialogue, learning about the cultures and history of European Nations, supporting cultural diversity, developing new forms of expression, better access to and participation in culture for the largest possible number of EU citizens).

• The eContent programme, commenced in 2001, aims directly at supporting the production, distribution, and consumption of European digital resources (including those in libraries, museums, and archives) as well as in promoting linguistic diversity in global networks. 

The Europe and Culture portal gives information about what is happening, fields of activity, funding, and lists individual national websites.
(http://europa.eu.int/comm/culture//index_en.htm)

The report of a meeting held in London in July 2001 which deals with many relevant issues and includes links to key documents can be found at http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/giants/

More and more cultural resources and information are now becoming available electronically and online. Public libraries need to offer a significantly wider range of cultural services and to help the process of cultivating Europe’s local community cultures in all their diversity. 

Public libraries need to work together with other memory and heritage institutions such as archives and museums to create new resources covering local history, cultural events, local cultural content and community information. The most advanced countries in this area are those of Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia. In the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom, interest in family history and genealogy has been generated by a long tradition of migration.

The activities of libraries, archives, and museums must be co-ordinated on the national, regional and local level. Examples of good practice is Resource in the UK and the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority.

GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES

Public libraries across Europe have long been involved in a wide range of activities designed to support access to culture on the basis of promoting readership, books and collecting the literary heritage of the region. Libraries must continue to preserve and provide access to the written heritage, and encourage the publication of works of minority and specialized interest, working to ensure that commercial considerations do not prevent publication. Digitisation and the development of the Internet provide a platform for these sorts of publication. Traditional activities such as meetings with authors, competitions, games, exhibitions, storytelling addressed predominantly to children have been designed to encourage them to start their adventure with literature and the book and to use the library(see also children). Reading groups for adults are also now common in some countries and contribute to lifelong learning.

Digital content
Museums, archives and other heritage organisations are digitising their collections at a rapid rate. More and more sophisticated methods of finding images are becoming available. 

National museums sites include those of real museums The Hermitage, St Petersburg, The Metropolitan, New York Tate Modern The Louvre, Paris Design Museum, London the Public Record Office and those in virtual form, for example Scottish Cultural Resource Network (SCRAN). 

There are many projects designed to enable everyone to participate more fully in the arts and culture, such as Kulturnat Danmark, Kulturnett Norge, Kulturnät Sverige, Saganet, Culture Online, NOF digi, a Netful of Jewels, Archives On-line, and OpenDrama. (see also Links.)

Increasingly digitisation is now being carried out in locally-based cultural heritage institutions (see also Links.)

The Internet and cultural resources
Librarians need to acquire the expertise to assess the general quality of Internet sites, without necessarily having the specialist knowledge to assess a website on a specialist subject.

The search engines currently available to find cultural resources on the Web each have their strengths and weaknesses: (see Phil Bradley & Searchenginewatch; see also search engines in the Resource Description Guideline). 

There are innumerable high–quality subject gateways in the World Wide Web. Public Libraries need to consider in which areas they add value by compiling gateways or guides to the Internet, bearing in mind the resources involved and the need to keep them up to date.

Access to local cultural and community information is an area not well covered by other gateways or general search engines and one in which public libraries are well placed to make a key contribution.

Public libraries and their cultural partner organisations 
Access to cultural resources requires co-operation between public libraries and other institutions including heritage institutions, other libraries, cultural associations, culture centres, foundations, social associations, associations of artists, historical societies, religious organisations, other NGOs, schools and local and central authorities. 

Local history and family history, which underpin cultural identity and stimulate a sense of community, are key subjects for libraries, archives and museums, and important areas for co-operation among them.

Co-operation is also desirable with audiovisual concerns such as film producers and television companies so that films and television programmes can be digitised and made available over the Internet. In 2002 the EC organized a film heritage week, and there will be "cinedays" in October 2003.

Co-operation is also important at the international level, for example in the case of services provided to multilingual communities (see multilingual) between institutions in areas located near national borders and services to ethnic groups, whose areas often go beyond national borders.

Home | Access to Diverse Cultural Content (Summary)
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