Cultural Heritage Accessibility in the Digital Era and the Greek Legal Framework

New technologies provide great opportunities for cultural heritage to become more widely accessible and for cultural experience to be more meaningful. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the strengths and vulnerabilities of the cultural heritage sector and the need to accelerate its digital transformation to make the most of the opportunities it provides. The Commission Recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation (2011/711/EU) concluded that there is an urgent need to protect and preserve European cultural heritage, and, in particular, endangered cultural heritage is still present. However, the diversity of legal approaches to cultural heritage by the Member States discourages the creation of a common European data space for cultural heritage as the European Commission recently proclaimed. In Greece, there have been significant efforts in recent decades to digitise and digitally preserve cultural heritage goods. However, the attention was not drew upon the accessibility and reuse of the digitized cultural heritage content. According to the relevant regulatory framework the existing rules on the use of digital technologies for the reproduction, use and preservation of cultural heritage content is obviously outdated. According to the paragraphs 4 and 5 of article 46 of the Greek Code for the protection of antiquities and cultural heritage in general (Law 4858/2021), a previous permission granted by the Ministry of Culture is required for the production, reproduction and dissemination to the public of impressions, copies or depictions of monuments belonging to the Public Sector, or immovable monuments that are located within archaeological sites and historical places or are isolated, or movable monuments that are kept in museums or public collections, in any way and by any means whatsoever, including Information Communication Technologies. Such permission is granted to natural or legal persons for a fee paid to the Hellenic Organization of Cultural Resources Development (HOCRED) upon the decision of the Minister of Culture, while the decision also specifies the temporal validity of the permission, the terms on which the permission is granted and the fee that must be paid. The production, reproduction and use of the aforementioned goods for other purposes, such as artistic, educational or scientific purposes, is again allowed for a fee paid to HOCRED, however, the fee can be waived upon the decision of the Minister of Culture. This Paper will examine the existing Greek legal framework and will attempt to propose an appropriate framework that will ensure open access to the digitized cultural heritage assets, enhance the recovery and transformation of the cultural heritage sector and support cultural heritage institutions in becoming more empowered and more resilient in the future.</p

ECHO Facts for Users 4/98

ECHO = European Community Humanitarian Offic

Open access in Southern European countries

The Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) is a public foundation under the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation whose mission is to strengthen the value chain of knowledge by fostering science and innovation and trying to integrate them and bring them closer to society, in response to the needs and expectations of the Spanish science, technology and enterprise system. The Foundation’s goal is to be recognized by Spanish society as a key reference in the dissemination, information and measurement of science and innovation. It also wishes to contribute to the development of a knowledge-based economy. One of the main challenges of the Foundation is to lead the integration and rationalization of scientific information and science, technology and innovation metrics, described as the “integrate and measure vector” in its 2010- 2012 strategic plan. FECYT already has considerable experience in managing national scientific information. It is the national licensee of the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge accessed by the Spanish scientific community. It is also firmly committed to establishing itself as the Spanish hub in favour of the open access (OA) movement (for free access to scientific information available on the Internet), in combination with supporting the traditional markets of scientific information. In 2010 FECYT organized the 5th International Conference on Open Repositories in Madrid, with the aim of positioning Spain in the debate on emerging trends in the management of scientific information. The authorities are opening the door to the open access movement, under the belief that publicly funded research should be freely available. Among other initiatives, the 2010 Spanish Bill on Science, Technology and Innovation urges researchers to deposit their research papers produced with public funding in institutional repositories

Cultural Heritage on line

The 2nd International Conference "Cultural Heritage online – Empowering users: an active role for user communities" was held in Florence on 15-16 December 2009. It was organised by the Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale, the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Library of Congress, through the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program - NDIIP partners. The conference topics were related to digital libraries, digital preservation and the changing paradigms, focussing on user needs and expectations, analysing how to involve users and the cultural heritage community in creating and sharing digital resources. The sessions investigated also new organisational issues and roles, and cultural and economic limits from an international perspective

Design and creation of a virtual world of Petra, Jordan

Includes bibliographical references.This thesis presents the design and creation of a 3D virtual world of Petra, Jordan, based on the digital spatial documentation of this UNESCO World Heritage Site by the Zamani project. Creating digital records of the spatial domain of heritage sites is a well-established practice that employs the technologies of laser scanning, GPS and traditional surveys, aerial and close range photogrammetry, and 360-degree panorama photography to capture spatial data of a site. Processing this data to produce textured 3D models, sections elevations, GISs, and panorama tours to has led to the establishment of the field of virtual heritage. Applications to view this spatial data are considered too specialised to be used by the general public with only trained heritage practitioners being able to use the data. Additionally, data viewing platforms have not been designed to allow for the viewing of combinations of 3D data in an intuitive and engaging manner as currently each spatial data type must be viewed by independent software. Therefore a fully integrated software platform is needed which would allow any interested person, without prior training, easy access to a combination of spatial data, from anywhere in the world. This study seeks to provide a solution to the above requirement by using a game engine to assimilate spatial data of heritage sites in a 3D virtual environment where a virtual visitor is able to interactively engage with combinations of spatial data. The study first begins with an analysis of what virtual heritage applications, in the form of virtual environments, have been created, and the elements that were used in their creation. These elements are then applied to the design and creation of the virtual world of Petra

Anthropology Resources For Librarians

As of 1989, no one had compiled a bibliography of resources of use to librarians who had a role supporting anthropologists in their institutions. The present lengthy bibliography began as a print list of 25 entries in the November 1989 issue of ANSS Currents. Over the years the list grew and it was published on ANSSWeb when the site was created in 1995. The bibliography has now migrated to a pdf version and contains more than 500 entries in 25 categories. It may be updated periodically as new resources are discovered