Brussels, 10/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 10 May, the Culture Council adopted conclusions on digitisation and online access to cultural material, in order to give momentum to the digitisation process. Digitisation was initiated in 2008 with the creation of the online European public library, Europeana, in order to provide a common multilingual point of access to Europe's cultural heritage. Although Europeana has enjoyed considerable success from the outset, the provision of funding for digitisation is tailing off with only a few member states playing a full part in data enrichment. Pointing out that digitisation and online access to cultural heritage is one of the top priorities of Europe's digital agenda, the European Commission published a recommendation in November 2011 in order to encourage member states to speed up the process. Conclusions adopted by the Council are the answer to the Commission's recommendations.
In their conclusions, member states confirm the importance of Europeana and the need to continue digitisation of works, by deepening cooperation and taking account of budgetary improvement efforts which compel member states to restrict their spending in certain areas because of the economic crisis. Future challenges will include online accessibility to orphan works and works that are out of commerce, for which a solution must be found with regard to copyright. The Council has established an indicative roadmap in order to speed up the work of member states between 2012 and 2015 on five points, in order to: (1) consolidate their strategies and targets for the digitisation of cultural material; - (2) consolidate the organisation of digitisation and the provision of funding for digitisation, including through promoting the use of public-private partnerships; (3) improve the framework conditions for online accessibility and use of cultural material; - (4) contribute to the further development of Europeana, including by encouraging cultural institutions to bring all relevant digitised cultural material into the site; - and (5) ensure long-term digital preservation.