The Israel Museum in Jerusalem hosted a conference on ‘Digitisation of Science and Cultural Heritage’ on 11th and 12th of

October, 2004. The meet was organised in association with the Jewish Agency for Israel ( http://www.jafi.org.il), Ministry of Science and Technology ( http://www.most.gov.il). The international initiatives like Minerva (http://www.miner vaeurope.org), EVA Conferences International ( http://www.eva-conferences.com) and Judaica division of the Harvard University Library collaborated to provide an international dimension to the event.

The conference focused on the creation of awareness among professional community in Israel and its policy makers for the opportunities and challenges of digitisation like: (1) Support for cultural diversity (2) Education and content industries (3) Accessible and sustainable heritage (4) The great variety and richness of digitised resources.

The challenges faced by these agendas include:

• The fragmentation of different approaches
• Obsolescence
• A lack of simple and common access for citizens
• Intellectual property rights
• A lack of synergies between cultural and new technologies programmes
• Limited institutional investment and commitment to cope

Law, culture technology and copyright
The first day of the conference was organised by the Israel MINERVA Working Groups (WG). Minerva is a European Commission project for concerted policies in digitisation. This group dealt with law, culture technology and copyright. The dilemmas involved in this area were expounded. The solutions proposed and limitations inherent to the i-Commons project of the University of Stanford on copyright for digitised materials described.

The WG also organised a workshop on ‘User Needs and Quality Framework for Common Access Points’ which showcased local projects and explored online accessibility as recommended by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Leading web presence providers in Israel discussed ways of implementing the 10 Minerva principles on quality of cultural websites ( http://www.minervaeurope.org/userneeds/qualityprinciples.htm).

Another workshop on ‘Good Practices and Competence Centres’ was organised which showcased some of the best projects in digitisation currently undertaken in Israel.

Future of European digitisation
Pier Giacomo Sola, MINERVA coordinator, presented the future European digitisation policy and projects planned by the European Commission. Dov Winer, director of the eJewish.info initiative lectured on the ‘End of the Internet? Some consequences for the Old/New Jewish People’. He focused on the cultural consequences of the total convergence of the media, telecom and Internet. Adolfo Roitman, the curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls addressed the fascinating issue of the relation of one of the oldest documents from the Jewish and Christian traditions and the newest technologies.

Ongoing European projects showcased
Projects supported by the European Commission in the area of digitisation of cultural heritage were also showcased :

PrestoSpace
The project was moderated by Didier Giraud from the National Institute for the AudioVisual and coordinator of the PrestoSpace project. It associates the main European broadcasting authorities with research and industrial partners. It will provide the actual facilities and services for digitisation factories for audiovisual preservation. This was a landmark meeting for broadcasters in Israel - presenting the problems and discussing the advancement of a digitisation programme for their assets. ( http://www.prestospace.org)

Calimera
Calimera assists local institutions (libraries, museums, archives) to apply and develop innovative technologies and strategies for serving ordinary citizens in their everyday lives.

A substantial representation of Israel local authorities’ cultural institutions and umbrella organisations participated in the workshops led by Breda Karun from the National Slovenia Library and the Calimera project. ( http://www.calimera.org/)

Epoch
Epoch is a network of about a hundred European cultural institutions joining their efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for cultural heritage. Training and dissemination are part of its mission and in the conference workshop several cutting edge technologies were showcased. ( http://www.epoch-net.org )

The Jerusalem declaration summary

• To strategically integrate the coordination of digital heritage with its economic sectors of reference such as culture, education, tourism, technology, research etc; their policies and programmes; policy-drivers and their objectives in the enlarged Europe.
• To effectively integrate regions with different know-how and experience. ( http://www.minervaisrael.org.il//sectionPages/sectionPageDisplay.aspx?sectionPageID=183 )

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