Digitization of Cultural Heritage Materials
Countries have begun to make cultural heritage materials more accessible and meaningful to its citizens. Some of these projects include the UC Davis Eastman Agricultural postcard image collection, the California collection of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, and the Native American Culture, Pacific Northwest by UNESCO. In the case of the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives project, the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) was established to meet a recognized reference need in the community concerning referenced materials on Japanese internment.
Hewlett Packard Co. puts Vatican Treasures on the Net
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology giant and the Holy See said Tuesday (Oct.29, 2002) that they had placed selected treasures from the Vatican's Apostolic Library on the Internet…
Atlanta Journal-Constitution/LA Times
It is a given that each collection of cultural heritage material has a built in community or audience. However, once that information is placed on the World Wide Web, new and sometimes, unexpected users of this information are born. This online group of users can be classified as a community. Like communities everywhere, online communities talk to each other about ways of using or exploiting information. In other words, the least likely people, sometimes from the least likely places, value and make creative and unpredictable uses of cultural materials. Therefore, it is difficult to predict how user communities would be attracted to particular digital collections of heritage materials.
While there is a relationship between digital libraries and digital collections, a distinction has to be made between the two. Digital collections can be viewed as the raw cultural content wrapped in a database that allows referencing of information within them. Whereas, digital libraries are the systems that make digital collections come alive, in the sense that the materials are already interpreted, presented and packaged for the user. The advantage becomes the ease in manipulating, analyzing and exploiting the materials. Eventually, users begin to comment on the information. In this respect, digital libraries, like communities, bring people together through the sharing of information. Consequently, the creation of digital content of multicultural heritage materials is a key strategy in executing the concept of multiculturalism and the goal of creating an inclusive society. Why? It allows communities to share memories and views of their cultural heritage with others in the community, and the wider public, and the world at large. At the same time, this information can be packaged to reach out to target audiences such as school children, thereby enhancing educational services and curricula. For scholars and historians, it allows the easy research and retrieval of cultural information. From a public perspective, it promotes cross-cultural understanding, and encourages inter-community dialogue among Canadians.
"The nation state has become too small for the big problems of the world and too big for the little problems of the world."
Daniel Bell, Harvard sociologist
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