Digital Applications for Cultural and Heritage Institutions

Citation

Srisa‐ard, S. (2006), "Digital Applications for Cultural and Heritage Institutions", Online Information Review, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 746-748. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520610716234

Digital technology and its applications have enabled significant changes in libraries, museums, archives, and other arts, cultural and heritage institutions. Digital Applications for Cultural and Heritage Institutions provides a perspective on leading developments in the field of culture and information and communication technology, and international cooperation by collecting a selection of papers from Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts (EVA) conferences in the period 2000‐2003. This selection covers case studies from the world's greatest institutions, as well as from some of the smallest and most innovative. Three editors and 59 contributors of this book are international specialists in the field of culture and technology.

The book's 32 chapters are organised into eight parts: “Strategic developments”; “Cooperative projects”; “Recreating and preserving the past”; “Digital archiving”; “Design, retrieval and protection”; “Special needs”; “Interactive realities and future possibilities”; and “Conclusion and future trends”.

Following the introductory overview chapter, Part 1 (“Strategic developments”) consists of three. Chapter 2, “DigiCULT: unlocking the value of Europe's cultural heritage sector”, provides European institutions with a roadmap of the various challenges they will face based on the key findings of the DigiCULT study. Chapter 3, “Culture as a driving force for research and technology development: a decade's experience of Canada's NRC 3D technology”, presents an overview of cultural applications developed during the past decade that have helped drive the development of the technology. Chapter 4, “The information society and technology”, looks at the best examples of IST in Russian museums, galleries, libraries, archives, non‐movable heritage and the performing arts.

Part 2 contains three papers about cooperative cross‐border projects. “Arch Terra”, an EU project discussed in Chapter 5 aims to network existing academic resources and historical and cultural achievements between Eastern and Western Europe and strengthen the existing scientific relations between the EU and the CEC and to promote long‐term joint initiatives. Chapter 6, “CHIMER – a cultural heritage application for 3G environment developed by European children”, brings technical experts into cooperation with researchers from museums and teachers from elementary schools. Chapter 7 describes a German‐Japanese project from the first idea to the final success for virtual reconstruction of two valuable destroyed buildings.

Part 3, “Recreating and preserving the past”, contains five chapters, beginning with a paper on German historical buildings in 3‐D. Image‐based object reconstruction and visualisation for inventory of cultural heritage is presented in the next paper. The rich archaeological and technical resources are described in Snore's paper on a virtual open‐air museum in 3‐D in Latvia. Then Hazan presents a virtual project on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the electronic art garden. The final chapter, on the production of conservation facsimiles, aims to preserve the original while also providing an attraction for cultural tourists. Part 4, “Digital archiving”, contains Chapters 13‐15 on digital image picture archives in Switzerland, museum and archive software for the BMW corporate archives, and the ICCD catalogue's general information system.

Design, retrieval and protection is the focus of Part 5 (six chapters). The topics cover the Cleveland special exhibition tool, Prometheus; the distributed digital image archive for research and academic teaching; the heritage illustrated thesaurus; an approach to adding value while recording historic gardens and landscape; copyright protection and exploitation of digital cultural heritage; and protection of intellectual property. Part 6 contains Chapters 22‐26, focusing on the special needs of the disabled for accessing cultural heritage online, via the web and the internet. Chapters 24‐26 deal with accessible internet applications, evaluation of web sites for accessibility, and breaking down barriers for non‐English speaking people.

The theme of Part 7 is “Interactive realities and future possibilities”. This part includes papers on new media art and the contemporary museum environment; a case study based on the NMPFT's award‐winning gallery, museumNet; design of a hand‐held interactive support for museum visitors; the impact of Haptic “touching” technology on cultural applications; and the Gulliver project. Part 8 contains the final chapter (Chapter 32) by the three editors; it addresses the significant achievements in this field, including both positive and negative conclusions, and pointers to future trends.

The papers presented in this book follow the same format by providing an abstract, introduction, discussion of the topic, conclusion, and references. The book also provides an index, list of figures, list of editors and contributors, list of abbreviation and glossary as well as a list of selected examples of good practice and good web sites which are very useful for readers. This is a well‐edited, if somewhat eclectic, collection that contains “something for everyone” in the field of digital applications for memory institutions.