European cultural heritage is a function of the collective memory of the varied cultural traditions and communities within Europe. The increasing importance of local cultural identity, combined with the potential of technology, will be a major catalyst for the take up of the Information Society by ordinary citizens and will provide bridges for social inclusion and across the digital divide.
Local institutions such as public libraries, museums and archives are essential contributors to these goals. They have to be mobilized to make best use of existing technologies and to contribute to the creation, use and delivery of local cultural content to meet specific local information and learning needs. They also have an enormous need to adopt and benefit from the goals of the research programme.
Many local institutions are changing fast: but they will need to change even faster during the coming decade by re-engineering their services and institutional character.
There remains a need to ensure that governments and institutions are fully aware of the issues, to identify the guidance needed and to assess and address the skills requirement, to overcome fragmentation and support strategies of excellence which have impact at local level.
There is also a need to assist the leveraging of opportunities and increase interest in addressing cultural issues through the European structural and development funds earmarked for regional development.
CALIMERA, through its carefully focused and structured programme of work will make a cost-effective and high value contribution for the European taxpayer toward addressing these needs.