Cultural heritage to go digital

Discussion is taking place on a draft national policy on the digitisation of cultural heritage, aimed at preserving national treasures and widening public access to cultural resources.

Heritage Malta chief executive Antoinette Caruana said yesterday the initial draft was still open to suggestions, but she hoped the guidelines would be in place before the end of the year.

Comments on the policy will be received until the end of March and they will be considered before a second draft is drawn up involving interested stakeholders, Ms Caruana said.

The draft was discussed during a half-day seminar organised by Heritage Malta yesterday at the Aula Magna in Valletta, in collaboration with Acrosslimits, as part of the MinervaPLUS Project financed by the EU.

The Minerva project is geared to facilitate the creation of a common European vision in the domain of accessibility and exploitation of cultural heritage through the web. The network harmonises the digitisation activities among member states.

Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, who opened the seminar, said there was no regulatory policy that established the necessary framework for digitisation in Malta.

The draft policy would ensure that a single procedure is adopted when it comes to digitisation.

Among the objectives of the policy are education, research and technological innovation, public access and the coordination of initiatives in the cultural heritage sector.