Source: Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

National Museum of Directors’ Council (UK) Europeana publishes White Paper calling for continued funding to digitise culture, NMDC newsletter October 2015

Europeana has published a White Paper: Transforming the World with Culture: next steps on increasing the use of digital cultural heritage in research, education, tourism and the creative industries’.  They hope the continued work to make use of heritage resources will drive tourism, and inspire a new generation of artists as well as being educationally useful.  For this, they argue that institutions must be supported to produce high quality digital assets fit for use, with an assured funding structure.  To date, 300 million objects have been digitised by cultural institutions, just 10% of those in their collections.

The publication of this White Paper comes at a particularly relevant moment for Europe’s cultural sector. The European Parliament has recently adopted a report recognising the importance of the cultural heritage sector as a strategic resource for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and recommending a dedicated European Cultural Heritage Year.