Baltic museum catalogues go digital
Online access to Baltic museum collections is now possible thanks to a new centralised web-based database system. The Museum Collections Management system was developed by Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian partners under EUREKA, a pan-European, intergovernmental initiative that has been supporting industrial, market-oriented research since 1985. The European Union is a member of EUREKA, along with 37 European countries. More and more museums are choosing to provide online access to their collections, making it possible to visit the world's great cultural and historic treasures at just the click of a mouse. Convenient and cheap for us, perhaps, but for smaller museums, acquiring the software necessary for providing online access to their catalogues is a costly affair. This is where the Museum Collections Management system comes in. The system consists of a centralised database engine, capable of working on both Windows and open-source Linux operating system platforms, in which the museum catalogues are stored. By having a common software and system structure, museums will be able to share the development and maintenance costs. The system is also designed in a standardised way, which makes it easier to manage. Partners say that those visiting the museum catalogues online should have no trouble navigating the web pages, which contain audio-visual clips and lots of interesting information on countless museum artefacts. They hope that the system will stimulate greater interest in Baltic cultural heritage. Following a successful pilot project in the Latvia, the software is now in production. But project partners say that they will continue to develop the software. 'We've developed very configurable and cost-effective management software but it is now necessary to make the system more attractive in terms of presentation and to increase the interactivity. We want to go beyond the database and could for example add some interactive games' explains one of the project partners. In addition to providing online access to all the Baltic state, regional and museum catalogues, project partners aim to develop a system that can be used globally.
Countries
Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia