The evolution of a virtual world within the world-wide-web marks the beginning of a general change in many aspects of our daily life and brings new challenges. This also concerns institutions guarding cultural heritage and especially archives, as safe keepers of unique documents. The existence of new information technologies opens up a variety of possibilities and new perspectives- most importantly the opportunity to represent those unique documents online by creating “virtual archives”. The unique holdings of archives are then no longer bound to a single physical location but can be accessed all over the world at any given time.
The aim of the conference „Archives on the Web – Experiences, Challenges, Visions“ is to firstly define and discuss the status quo of the positioning of archives within the world-wide-web. The presentation of best practice projects and other innovative ideas shall then show different endeavours, various experiences as well as challenges and obstacles encountered.
The topics will focus on the online presentation of archival material, new cooperation measures between archives and scientific operators, as well as models for international cooperation activities between archival institutions. The conference is at the same time the kick-off action for a big international cooperation project with 14 partners (archival and university institutions) from 11 different European countries. This project, “ENArC - European Network on Archival Cooperation”, is funded by the EU-programme “Culture 2007-2013” and is coordinated by ICARUS (International Centre for Archival Research) and the St. Pölten Diocese Archives.
Sections
Introduction
Section 1: Current and future challenges for archives on the web
Section 2: Archival cooperation in Europe
Section 3: Best practices
Section 4: Archives and research
