GOOD PRACTICE IN DIGITISATION
FORM FOR NOMINATION

This is the form for the nomination of a good practice in digitisation.
Please, send a form for each different project.
Each project can be “nominated” for more than one area.

Send the form/forms to the attention of Maria Teresa Natale by e-mail to minerva2@beniculturali.it orf by fax to +390667232499.

The form will be submitted to the National representative for approval.

English must be used.

NAME AND ACRONYM OF THE PROJECT:
CultuurDatabank Vlaanderen (Culture Database Flanders)
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URL: www.cultuurnet.be/cultuurdatabank 
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AREAS for nominations of 'good practice' for on-going projects on digitisation:

1)  Digitisation Project Planning (The Reasons for the project, Human Resources, Research, Risks

2)  Selecting Source Material for Digitisation (Establish Selection Criteria, Selection Against the Criteria)

3)  Preparation for Digitisation (Hardware; Software; Environment)

4)  Handling of Originals (Moving and Manipulating Original Material)

5)  The Digitisation Process (Using Scanners; Using Digital Cameras; Software Applications for Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

6)  Preservation of Digital Master Material (File Formats; Media Choices; Migration Strategies)

7) X Meta-Data (The Scope of Meta-Data Used for Object Description; Appropriate Meta-Data Standards)

8) X Publication (Image Processing; 3D and Virtual Reality Issues; Online Publication)
9) X IPR and Copyright (Establing Copyright; Safeguarding Copyright)

10) X Managing Digitisation projects (Digitisation Process management; Team Development; Staff Training; Working with Third Parties for Technical Assistance; Working with Third Parties in Cooperative projects and Content Sharing; Costs

RESPONSIBLE BODY AND/OR ANY SPECIFIC 
CO-ORDINATING BODY/MECHANISM/INSTITUTION

Name of the institution: CultuurNet Vlaanderen

English name of the institution:  CultureNet Flanders

Acronym of the institution: ....................................................................

Mailing address: Arenbergstraat 1d, 1000 Brussel

Country: Belgium

Tel.: 02/551.18.70

Fax: 02/551.18.99

e-mail: hans.nissens@cultuurnet.be 

URL: www.cultuurnet.be 

Type of institution:  National		 Governmental		X Regional
             Other   Specify ........................................................................

Sector:  Archive   Library  Museum X Foundation  
             Other   Specify ........................................................................

Legal status: X Public   Private    No profit

Description of the institution (max 200 characters):

CultuurNet Vlaanderen was set up by the Flemish Minister of Culture in June 2001.   The general mission of CultuurNet Vlaanderen is to contribute to broadening and intensifying public participation in the cultural life of the Flemish Region and to achieve a better social positioning for art and culture. CultuurNet Vlaanderen sets about its mission in three different ways: by providing the cultural sector with support, advice and accompaniment in its public communication and audience development work; with communication initiatives aimed directly at the general public; and by developing an array of support tools, in particular a culture database and a Flanders culture site.

CONTACT PERSON OF THE PROJECT

Name: Nissens Surname: Hans

Gender:   X M		 F

Title: co-ordinator CultuurDatabank

Institution: CultuurNet Vlaanderen
Mailing address: Arenbergstraat 1d, 1000 Brussel

Country: Belgium

Tel.: 02/551.07.40

Fax: 02/551.18.99

e-mail: hans.nissens@cultuurnet.be 

Contact languages: Dutch, English and French

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

Duration: January 2002 – may 2005

Ojectives and priorities  (max 200 characters):

Objective: 
Providing a tool to facilitate any public search for cultural information and related services (for example ticketing) throughout different channels (websites, digital TV, e-zines, call centers, info-desks, prints, media,...).  
Priorities: 
Development of a central culture database (CultuurDatabank) with de-centralised inputfacilities. 
Development of one of the main channels that will be linked to this databank: a general and innovative ‘Flemish cultural portalsite’. 

The main features for what you consider the project a 'good practice' example, with respect to the selected areas (max 200 characters for each area):

Meta-Data
The previous lack of a standard and classification for exchanging cultural information created stand-alone solutions: different cultural organisations created their own databank which was not able to easily communicate with other databanks. As a result: double costs, double input of the same data in different databanks,,…  The introduction of a general standard for the whole cultural field enables a functional and effective digital communication.

Publication
The cultural database facilitates (digital) publication of cultural data throughout many different channels (websites, media, prints, call centers, SMS, info-desks,…). Therefor, different softwaretools are integrated in the databank: webservices (for publication on websites), a download-button (for publication via excel-files) and an IIS-component (for permanent datatranfers with connected databanks). CultuurNet Vlaanderen also develops one of the main publicationchannels: a culture portalsite for Flanders.

IPR and Copyright
For safeguarding any possible copyright-problems CultuurNet Vlaanderen has engaged a jurist to come to a ‘legal vademecum’ which describes all (possible) relevant aspects on this legal matter.

Managing Digitisation projects (Digitisation Process management; Team Development; Staff Training; Working with Third Parties for Technical Assistance; Working with Third Parties in Cooperative projects and Content Sharing; Costs
The team of the culture database-project is devided in different cels: general management, content, partnerships, system development, portal development, communication and marketing, juridical aspects.
Third parties (KulturServer – Germany, and ZappWerk – Holland) are responsable for the technical development (programming).
Different partnerships (with cultural organisations, cities and communities,…) guarantee a logical data-workflow to and from the culture database. 

Problems encountered and lessons learned:

- It’s difficult to establish one overall standard for cultural information because it’s a complex proces with different views. It takes a lot of discussionmeetings  and time.
- To persuade (potential) partners to participate with the project, a strong and continued focus on the added values are necessary. Sometimes a mental change is needed, before partners are willing to give up their own ICT-project or to integrate it in a broader concept. 
- Technical problems can become very complex when trying to exchange data between different databases with different standards.

Comments:
None

I agree this information may be published on Minerva Knowledge Base: http://www.minervaeurope.org

X Yes  No

Signature: 

Name: ir. Hans Nissens

e-mail: hans.nissens@cultuurnet.be