eCulture project – Digitalization of cultural heritage

Greater availability of information through digitization

With this project, the Ministry of Culture and Media (Ministry of Culture at the time) wanted to contribute to increasing the protection and online availability of digital cultural content, ensure safe storage of digital cultural content in one place and provide users with unique access to such stored content through the establishment of an appropriate ICT system.

The proposal of the central system was developed as a need and a response to the current state of information systems, the way of organizing the digitalization process, as well as the degree of concern for the preservation of digital materials in heritage institutions in the Republic of Croatia. The central system was established with the main intention of facilitating the process of digitalization and permanent storage for heritage institutions. The establishment of such a system enables the process of digital preservation of the material covered by the system, along with the development of various services related to digital and digitalized cultural heritage material. The establishment of one central management entity ensures uniformity and standardization of data formats and metadata, in addition to the uniformity and transparency of management processes defined by the management body or the owner of the centralized system. The central system is based on a central repository that serves as permanent storage and digital preservation as well as for partner institutions that facilitate the digitalization of cultural heritage. It is also used for defining criteria for material selection, standards for the digitalization process, standards for metadata and file formats for digital materials. The standardized approach ensures the consistency of digitalized material and interoperability with the central repository and external systems; implementation of a system for permanent identifiers which enables unambiguous marking of digital and digitalized material and refers to its location in the central system.

The purpose of the system is to improve the availability of digital content, its interoperability between institutions and the storage of digital content of heritage institutions by introducing standards, specifications of work processes and shared services. The goal of establishing a central system is efficient and high-quality management as well as digital preservation of digital and digitalized cultural heritage.