A. Communities
Cross-domain co-operation and partnership
(CALIMERA guideline)
is an important tool for developing policy to support community participation and development, it:
- Enables the development of innovative services for users;
- Allows for, and encourages, changes in the way people interact with museums, libraries and
archives at a local and community level;
- Promotes the value of an active community involvement in collecting and creating resources;
- Facilitates the expression of a shared community identity whilst celebrating the differences which
enrich it.
Resources which describe this process include:
B. The European Agenda
Cultural policy development and implementation locally, regionally and nationally is of relevance
to the wider European agenda. This is demonstrated in a number of key documents including:
- The European Union's eEurope Action Plan giving everyone the opportunity to benefit from a global
information society;
- The report produced on Monitoring Pulman's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan indicating the extent to which
European countries have developed their museums, libraries and archives as centres of access to digital
resources. The original Manifesto is also of value in this context;
- CALIMERA's State of the art report on national and local policies describing the current situation
in relation to policies on the innovative use of IT for the benefit of communities across Europe;
- Individual country reports on cross-domain development and digitisation which provide useful
benchmarks for policy making in a European environment.
C. Benefits and drivers
The benefits and drivers of cross-domain working for policy development are clearly demonstrated in
the case studies in section IV of this tool-kit. In particular they show the clear drivers
provided by:
- E-inclusion: case studies:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12
- E-learning/ research:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
8,
9,
10,
11
- E-business (cultural tourism):
3,
6,
7,
10
In time cross-domain policy makers at all levels will need to respond to drivers in a European context.
These include the
eEurope Action Plan
and the report Monitoring Pulman's Oeiras Manifesto Action Plan as
well as the new start for the Lisbon Strategy which sets out new ways in which the European Union aims to
drive productivity and improve jobs, including better use and delivery of technologies.
In addition policy-based benefits for cross-domain working include:
- Workforce development described in the guidance section;
- Improved participation by local communities;
- Straightforward interactive on-line public services;
- Maximising opportunities from the funding available described in the guidance section;
- Maximising the potential for increased plural funding as shown in the case studies.
These are all described in detail in the management section of the CALIMERA Guidelines.
D. Barriers and constraints
Inevitably there are also barriers and constraints to cross-domain working which are also
illustrated by a number of case studies in this tool-kit. Decision-makers
can use these case studies to work on strategies to identify and overcome barriers
and lift potential constraints.
The four main barriers and constraints identified by the case studies are the:
- Initial lack of understanding of the benefits of cross-domain working (case studies
1,
2,
9);
- The difficulty of getting digitisation accepted as policy priority at institutional level
(case study 4);
- A lack of funding for cross-domain programmes;
- A lack of a common vocabulary between the three domains in the process of merging
different working practices and cultures (case studies
2,
5,
9,
10,
11)
E. Keys to success
Providing a counter-balance to the barriers and constraints are the areas which can ensure the success
of a policy programme - the keys to success.
Through the case studies the main keys to success have been identified as:
F. ICT for policy making
ICT and digitisation are relevant in all policy agendas for cross-domain working. The social policy
section of the CALIMERA guidelines describes this process in detail in sections on:
- Cultural identity and cohesion
- E-Government and citizenship
- Learning (formal and informal)
- Social and economic development
- Social inclusion
G. Cross-domain strategies
There are wide differences between countries within the European Union on the degree and extent of
cross-domain working. CALIMERA's State of the art report on national and local policies makes it clear
that co-operation at a strategic level between museums, libraries and archives is not yet the norm.
Page seven of the report explains the clear disparities between the countries, such as the UK
(case study 1), Norway (case study 2) and
Belgium (case study 3),
where cross-domain working is a well-established principle; and with other countries where it is an
unrealised ambition, or perceived as being irrelevant to historical and current cultural practices.
Further information on the level of commitment to cross-domain collaboration can be found in the Minerva
report Coordinating digitisation in Europe and each of the country reports on the CALIMERA website.
The case studies in this tool-kit show the clear benefits of voluntary cooperation
(case studies 7 and
12). Particularly in Croatia
(case study 8), continuous voluntary
collaboration between professional associations has led to remarkable results.