GOOD PRACTICE FORM FOR NOMINATIONS

We propose to start the activity of the workgroup on 'good practice' proposing an initial set of some main areas where to put the nominations. In particular we think to start with the basic issue of digitisation itself.
Each project can be 'nominated' for more than one area, following your evaluation of the most important features contained in the example.

AREAS for nominations of 'good practice' for on-going projects on digitisation:
1.	Preservation of physical objects via digitisation and electronic surrogates.
2.	High quality of the digitisation process.
3.	Metadata and Thesaurus.
4.	Usability of project results.
5.	Management of the process and workflow
6.	Accessibility including copyright issues and web sites

For each project please specify:

•	Area of 'good practice' where you like to nominate your project (you can put more than only one area): 

6. Acessibility (web site)

•	Name:

Kongens Kunstkammer (Royal Chamber of Art)

•	Responsible body and/or any specific :
Co-ordinating body/mechanism:

Danish Ministry of Culture

•	Contact person:

Jacob Schouenborg

•	Web site:

www.kunstkammer.dk

•	Description of the project, objectives and priorities:

The aim of the project is twofold:
1. To “reunite” parts of the original Kunstkammer (Danish Royal Chamber of Art) in a virtual media – the web and to tell the story about renaissance collections and the history of the Kunstkammer
2. To give the user the possibility to create his/her own exhibition by interactive tools.
 
The Kunstkammer (Danish Royal Chamber of Art) was established about 1650 by Frederik III, King of Denmark-Norway 1648-1670. The Kunstkammer was just one of several European collections, arranged and organised according to renaissance ideas of a cross disciplinary profusion. By the end of the 18th century these ideas became outdated and new scientific conceptions emphasising the importance of specialised collections were brought up. The Kunstkammer existed until 1825, when it was dissolved and nearly 10.000 objects were moved to new specialised museums of e.g. art, history and natural sciences.
The web seems to be the obvious media for a virtual re-establishing of a collection, now dispersed in many physical locations. The project has thus involved 10 cultural institutions.

The second objective is to provide an interactive access to and use of the collection – hence the feature “Your own exhibition”. Here the user can compose his/hers own exhibition by choosing objects in the storage and place them in showcases in a virtual museum. Also each exhibition can be annotated and will be accessible for everybody on the web site for 30 days.

•	The main technical features for what you consider the project a 'good practice' example:

The main strength of this project is the exploitation of the virtual features and interactivity of the web media, here used as the access channel.

The reunion of objects from a not anymore existing collection could not be done in the psychical world, at least only for a very short time. Also the digital media provides excellent opportunities for a visual demonstrating of  “contextualisation”, i.e. the organisation of objects in renaissance collections.

The interactivity of “Your own Exhibition” exceeds the limits of a “traditional” digital catalogue, which allows just passive browsing. In “Your own Exhibition” you can combine objects following your own ideas and communicate your ideas to the world.

•	Long term sustainability strategy:

The project “Kongens Kunstkammer” is published on the museums web site, and will migrate as other projects to new platforms when needed.

•	Accessibility by users via local network or Internet (describe modalities and IPR issue from a technical point of view):

As a published web site there are no formal restrictions on the use of Kongens Kunstkammer. 
However, particularly the interactive part works best with a broad band connection and is quite slow at a modem. This may cause some limitations in the use – given the users patience may not be too large.

The issue of copyrights is not regarded as a technical problem, since the resolution of the images is not fine enough for printed publishing.  It is allowed to print the images for private, non-commercial use, actually “Your own Exhibition” includes a print function of your own catalogue.

•	Problems encountered: 

The restrictions and limitations are primarily of economical nature. This project was only initiated and accomplished by the aid of a grant from the CultureNet Denmark. Even for a large museum it is difficult to find means for innovative IT projects out of the daily budget.
This project comprises only about 250 objects and it would have been desirable to have worked with a larger amount of objects, in order to give an even better demonstration of the richness of a Kunstkammer.

Comments: 

Figures and documents enclosed:

Handout from the conference Museum and the Web, Boston, April 2002. Describes in English the main functions of “Kongens Kunstkammer”

I agree this information could be published/

                            x  Yes
                               No

Organisation & person completing the questionnaire

•	Formal name of organisation:
National Museum of Denmark

•	Type of organisation:
Governmental
•	Field of action:	Archive / Library / Museum / Foundation / others ….
Museum
•	Address:
Frederiksholms Kanal 12
DK 1220 København C

•	Name of director:
Carsten U. Larsen

•	Name and role of person completing the questionnaire:
Tine Wanning
Curator/web coordinator

•	Tel: +45 33 47 38 80

•	Fax: +45 33 47 33 30

•	Web site: www.natmus.dk

•	E-mail: wanning@natmus.dk

Date:  09 May 2002