People,

The following sounds like an excellent venture of enormous value to scholars and
students of Europe's past. What I find striking is that, though Britain (I
assume what is meant is the UK, but perhaps NI is excluded), France and Italy
are involved at the outset, and additional involvement is on the way from
Poland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and
Malta, there is no indication at all that Ireland will play a part.

This is an extraordinary absence and I really have to wonder why Ireland is
apparently not a part of this Europe-wide project?

Perhaps someone from the NMI or the Heritage Council (or the givernment even)
could take a couple of minutes to talk about this and confirm that Ireland will
play no part, and perhaps offer an explanation of why 'we' are not bothered.

Anyway, people might take a look at this http://www.michael-culture.org/ and see
that they think of this venture. Looks good to me.

Sincerely

Stiof
aka 'dismayed' of Waterford

##########################################

> Gateway to European digital culture through MICHAEL - New initiative
> creates worldwide access to European cultural heritage
>
> Tuesday 15 November 2005
>
> At a conference today in Bristol the Museums, Libraries and Archives
> Council (MLA) launched MICHAEL, the multilingual online catalogue
> which aims to provide quick and simple access to the digital
> collections of museums, libraries and archives from European
> countries. In future, students and researchers will be able to
> discover information about European digital collections that might
> previously have been difficult to find. The services will also
> support cultural tourism, the creative industries and other interests.
>
> MLA is the UK partner in this ground-breaking British, French and
> Italian led initiative. In the UK, MLA is working to build a UK-wide
> inventory of the collections, websites and other resources created
> through digitisation projects by museums, libraries, archives and
> other cultural institutions.
>
> Kate Fernie, ICT Adviser: EU Projects at MLA commented: "MICHAEL will
> open up worldwide access to our shared European cultural heritage
> creating the first multilingual inventory of collections in museums,
> libraries and archives across Europe. The aim of today's conference
> is to mark the launch of the MICHAEL project in the UK and to promote
> MICHAEL to the profession and beyond to encourage active engagement
> and support in developing and maintaining the inventory of UK digital
> collections."
>
> Work on Michael began in 2004 to create an open source database for
> recording digital collections, that can be accessed through websites
> in many different languages. Work is continuing on cataloguing the
> rich digital collections in the UK, and a European portal of digital
> collections from Italy, France and the UK will be launched in 2006.
> As the project moves forwards, new partners will join the project
> from Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Malta, the
> Netherlands and Poland By 2007, the MICHAEL portal will be
> available in at least 12 European languages and give access to
> digital collections across Europe.
>
> The project is supported by the European Commission with funding
> through its eTen programme, which is dedicated to the deployment of
> new services in Europe.
>
> # # #
>
> Notes to Editors:
>
> For further information please contact Emma Poole / Gemma Crisp at
> MLA emma.poole@... / gemma.crisp@... 020 7273 1459.
>
> The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is the national
> development agency working for and on behalf of museums, libraries
> and archives, advising the government on policy and priorities for
> the sector. MLA's roles are to provide strategic leadership, to act
> as a powerful advocate, to develop capacity and to promote innovation
> and change.
>
> AJLSM is a French IT consulting company in the heritage sector. It
> provides innovative solutions to support its customers in creating,
> managing and publishing information. AJLSM specialises in open source
> developments.
>
> Ministry of Culture and Communication (MCC) has the role of
> preserving and developing the French material and immaterial cultural
> inheritance, encouraging the creation of works of art and the spirit,
> contributing to the diffusion and the democratisation of culture and
> promoting cultural diversity. Its remit includes galleries, museums,
> heritage sites and world-famous institutions such as the Louvre
> museum in Paris.
>
> Dédale is a French research and production agency devoted to
> relationships between the arts, culture and new technologies. It
> encourages international exchanges building on a European media arts
> observatory, a media lab, exchange programmes, seminars, workshops
> and an international digital arts festival. Dédale also provides
> assistance to European cultural networks and public authorities on
> digitisation of the cultural heritage, new learning environments,
> digital arts and new cultural venues.
>
> Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBAC) is the Italian
> government ministry responsible for cultural heritage and activities.
> Its remit includes state museums and galleries, cultural heritage
> sites, the built heritage, libraries, archives and the intangible heritage.
>
> Amitié is an Italian research centre that focuses on education and
> training, with particular experience of providing support and
> management services for EU projects.
>
> Further information about the MICHAEL project is available from
http://www.michael-culture.org/

Press Release No.:15/11/05
Weblink: http://www.michael-culture.org/


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