Calimera Guidelines

Cultural Applications:

Local Institutions Mediating Electronic Resources

Introduction

Calimera Guidelines

Introduction

These Guidelines have been compiled by the CALIMERA Co-ordination Action, funded under the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies (IST) Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

Their aim is to provide policy makers and professionals working in cultural institutions at the local level (in particular, public libraries, museums and archives) with a concise and relevant summary of the state of the art in the use of new technologies. The Guidelines are intended to explain in a readable way how these technologies can be deployed to develop digital services designed to meet real user needs - social, cultural and economic – and to stimulate wider take-up and creativity among our professional community. They are also intended to support a clearer understanding of the way in which local cultural services can play a key role in the fulfilment of major policy goals in Europe, including those of the e-Europe Action Plan [1].

The Guidelines follow on from those produced by the PULMAN Thematic Network under FP5 [2], which were published in 2002/03 and translated into 26 languages. The CALIMERA guidelines are organised according to a similar structure. The major difference is that the CALIMERA Guidelines not only update the previous version but extend their scope to include services offered by archives and museums, in addition to those offered by public libraries. Similar plans exist for their translation into numerous European languages during the first part of 2005. All versions are made available on the CALIMERA website [3].

There are 23 separate Guidelines in all. These are structured as three main groups covering Social, Management and Technical issues. To ensure ease of use by busy decision makers, a Summary of each Guideline is also available in addition to the full version. The last part of each Guideline comprises a series of links to innovative applications of technology involving or affecting local cultural institutions, designed to help users to assess leading developments across Europe from their own perspective.

The co-ordination of the CALIMERA Guidelines has been undertaken by Essex County Council (United Kingdom), a partner in the Co-ordination Action, under the general editorship of Julia Harrison. However, contributions have been made from a very wide variety of experts from throughout the EU and its neighbouring countries, in the form of workshop participation, written submissions and editorial criticism. We would like to thank all those who have participated so willingly and productively in the compilation of the Guidelines and also those who have engaged with the task of their translation.

During the final period of CALIMERA, which ends in May 2005, a Best Practice Forum will be launched via the website, to enable wider discussion of the content of these Guidelines. We hope very much that many members of the professional community will participate in further development of ideas and identification of good practice.

Finally, I would like to emphasise that the content of the Guidelines is freely available for re-publication. All that is required is an acknowledgement of the source and of European Commission funding under the IST programme. We would be happy to provide publishers with the necessary logos etc on request.

Robert Davies

Scientific Co-ordinator

CALIMERA.

rob.davies@mdrpartners.com

REFERENCES

[1] e-Europe Action Plan

http://europe.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/2005/all_about/action_plan/index_en.htm

[2] PULMAN Thematic Network http://www.pulmanweb.org

[3] CALIMERA http://www.calimera.org