Digital Treasures

Join us in unlocking the treasures kept in archives across Europe.
It is time to tap into the enormous potential digital collections have for changing the way that information is used, and for developing new ways of preserving, collecting, organizing, propagating and accessing knowledge.

— Digital Treasures

Over the last decades, institutions with archival holding have invested important resources to offer access to digitized items. These “digital treasures” are thus incorporated as primary sources to free access portals, but they do not have a transformation process nor generate economic returns.

The challenges of the digital age are moving memory institutions into new business models, and developing institutional enterprises around digitization. The rapidly changing technology is facilitating a period of experimentation and evaluation of new models. Digital collections have enormous potential for changing the way that information is used, and for developing new ways of preserving, collecting, organizing, propagating and accessing knowledge.

Against this brackground, this project “European Digital Treasures: Management of centennial archives in the 21st century” (short: European Digital Treasures) aims at bringing joint European heritage, and especially its digital versions, major visibility, outreach and use.

The project is co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme, the framework programme of the EU for the cultural and audiovisual sectors. The consortium of 8 partners from 7 countries unites a multi-stakeholder team comprised of state archives, a technological institute, a cultural incubator, a research institution and an international network of cultural heritage institutions.

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Our project at a glance:

The Factsheet

In line with the philosophy of large-scale cooperation projects of the Creative Europe programme, the project partners will collaborate in a wide range of complementary and cross-cultural activities and actions.

The project activities are split into four main work packages with different sub tasks:

WP1: New Business Models for European Archives in the XXI Century

evaluate and generate a greater added value, profitability, visibility and economic return for European archives, through the identification and implementation of new business models and activities:

Pan-European diagnosis and state of the art / Definition of an international benchmark (2019-2020)

Training workshop on new business and conceptual models (Autumn 2020)

Training workshop on new digital technologies with regard to new business models (Autumn 2020)

Serious Games and Archives (2021)

Artistic residence (Spring 2020)

Alternative models for the generation of new activities and incomes / Monitorisation & evaluation report

WP2: Stories of the History

create 3 interactive, roaming transmedia exhibitions to provide a major visibility of shared European history through a selection of key documents

WP3: Working with new Target Audiences

explore new audiences and work with new profiles to promote the archives to new target groups: the “Generation Y” and the “Silver Generation”.

cooperation with Silver Researchers and hobby researchers through surveys and crowdsourcing activities (2019 – )

Archival Literacy online course – introducing secondary school students to the world of archives (2020 – )

Edutainment App linked to the 3 transmedia exhibitions and connected to social networks (2021 – )

virtual “European Youths’ Archives” created by youngsters (2021 – )

WP4: Communication and Dissemination

Digital Forum (2021)

Servicio de Cooperación Internacional
Subdirección General de los Archivos Estatales
Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte
Plaza del Rey nº 1, planta 0
28004-Madrid (España)

Email

digitaltreasures.office[at]cultura.gob.es