Our British Content Provider The National Archives UK, in collaboration with the UK Intellectual Property Office, have produced new guidelines on the usage and digitisation of copyright material. The guidance suggests ways to register collections and works as “orphan work”, as well as best practice to conduct research on possible rights holders.

The guidance also explores the copyright exceptions and other factors that may allow an archives to proceed with the digitisation and digital publication of work, as well as general information on re-using public-sector information.

The information refer to UK law and the UK archival sector, but they can be a good starting point for reflections in other countries, too.

You can find the guides here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/legislation/copyright/

Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor – what role for Archives?

The European Commission has recently released the second edition of its Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor, a tool designed to benchmark and boost the creative and cultural potential of European cities.

The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor is designed to help national, regional and municipal policy makers identify local strengths and opportunities and benchmark their cities against similar urban centres compared to other sites in Europe, using both quantitative and qualitative data.

This tool can be also useful for archives to monitor what is their role in promoting the cultural and creative potential of European cities – which is a fundamental aspect to both eonomic growth and quality of life overall.

A report from the 24th ICARUS Convention in Belgrade, Serbia

The International Center for Archival Research (ICARUS) organized in Belgrade its 24th Convention, on the theme of Archives and Archival Research in Digital Surrounding, in cooperation with University of Belgrade and Historical Archives of Belgrade.

In three days (23rd – 25th September) over one hundred participants of the Convention had the opportunity to see more than forty presentations which covered various aspects of contemporary trends in the domains of archival researches and digitization of archival material. Besides presentations, guided tours through Historical Archives of Belgrade, National Library of Serbia and Audiovisual Archive and Digitization Center of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts allowed participants of the Convection to get acquainted with current activities and challenges of these institutions.

Presentations of major international projects and initiatives (like European Digital Treasures, The Time Machine Project, and Archival Portal Europe) were complemented with presentations and examples of development and successful implementation of digital tools in local institutions. Theoretical aspects and methodological concepts of implementation of digital technologies in archives were discussed as well.

New challenges and possibilities in development of Archival Portal Europe were presented to the participants on the third day of the Convention by Slobodan Mandic from Historical Archives of Belgrade. He presented new technological capacities available to the users in search of abundant and diverse material preserved on this Portal with examples how to use it while conducting a research of history of Belgrade, Serbia and South East Europe.

All participants of the Convention were given printed program and book with abstracts of presentations. The full texts of the presentations will be printed by the end of the year.

The presentation by Slobodan Mandic on Archives Portal Europe is available  here

 

The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action

ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, has released a report on how cultural heritage institutions can help in the fight against climate change and to achieve the Paris Agreement’s objectives.

The report provides an overview of the ways in which cultural heritage is affected by climate change, and conversely the ways in which cultural heritage can become a source  of resilience for communities. The full report is freely available at this link