CALIMERA - Cultural Applications: Local Institutions Mediating Electronic Resource Access
Working with a network of support groups, practitioners, national authorities and suppliers in 42 countries, the Coordination Action CALIMERA has produced a vast array of resources for promoting best practices for cultural institutions.
- Project type: Coordination Action
- Start Date: 1 December 2003
- Duration: 18 months
- End Date: 31 May 2005
- Funding: € 899 900
- Number of Partners: 51
- Project co-ordinator: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Departamento de Bibliotecas e Arquivos, Portugal
- Contact: Rob Davies
Project description
Working with a network of support groups, practitioners, national authorities and suppliers in 42 countries, the Co-ordination Action CALIMERA has produced a vast array of resources and made them available through its website. Key products include reports on every country in the network, guidelines for local cultural institutions on social, management and technical issues underlying digital service delivery, a solutions noticeboard for local cultural institutions providing information emerging from the industrial and research sectors, a research roadmap and other documents and tools.
Background
CALIMERA built upon the achievements of the Pulman Network of Excellence which has already set the scene for promoting best practice among local institutions (libraries, archives, museums) throughout Europe. One of the most important outcomes of the Pulman Network were the Pulman 'Guidelines for Public Libraries in the age of digitisation' and the 'Oeiras Manifesto', a policy document paving the way for the implementation of eEurope in local cultural institutions on which high level politicians agreed in May 2003.
Based on the already existing network of country coordinators for libraries, CALIMERA has identified more potential collaborators, especially in the museums and archives domain. The project also tried to include participants from the industry sector. The country coordinators provide support for awareness building on information exchange in now 42 participating countries.
Objectives
The main objectives of the CALIMERA projects were:
- Ensure that local cultural institutions (public libraries, museums and archives) benefit from and contribute to the goals of the Information Society Technologies agenda set out 6th RTD Framework Programme Programme.
- Encourage local cultural institutions to create collaboration between themselves, local and national authorities, professional networks, and industrial players.
- Coordinate and mobilise local cultural institutions for their new role as key players in transforming innovative technologies into helpful services for ordinary citizens, including all types of users.
- Promote the position of local cultural institutions as intermediaries between technological modernisation and end-users, creating and delivering access to environments for intelligent heritage and cultural tourism, identifying a framework for focused research on usability.
- Increase the sharing of best practice by local institutions, by producing guidelines and benchmarking tools and by preparing high-impace dissemination activities.
- Participate in the extension of the European Research Area, especially by nurturing the involvement of the Accession Countries.
Key results
Working with its network of country support groups, practitioners, national authorities and suppliers CALIMERA has produced a vast array of important results and resources, all available through its website. Key products include:
- An extensive set of guidelines for local cultural institutions on social, management and technical issues underlying digital service delivery, which have been translated into more than 30 languages.
- Country reports on every country in the network.
- A Solutions Noticeboard providing information on individual solutions useful to local cultural institutions, emerging from the industrial and research sectors.
- A Policy Toolkit intended to support those who are developing policies for cross-domain partnerships.
- A Research Roadmap which takes an end-user and functional view of the future research needs of the CALIMERA constituency.