Towards Digital Cultural Heritage with a Purpose

What steps are needed to better prepare Cultural Heritage Institutions (CHIs) to the Digital Single Market (DSM) and what systemic changes are needed in order to make CHIs open and digital? How can CHIs best fulfill their mission in the DSM so that they best address the needs of the society? The aim of this process is to collectively define policy recommendations that will allow Cultural Heritage Institutions to flourish and fulfil their public mission in the digital realm. In our view this goal can be only achieved with CHIs supporting access and the reusability of digital cultural heritage. That is why our particular interest is in policies related to the reuse of cultural assets and value chains that this reuse enables for various communities. We believe that multiple forms of value need to be considered, generating not only cultural but also social and economic impact of the Cultural Heritage sector. A systemic approach that will support different forms of value creation should be at the heart of the sector's digital strategy. For this reason, we want to build on a by now well-defined vision of preservation and digitisation and expand it by paying particular attention to access and reuse of collections, especially considering such issues as possible types of reuse, digitisation strategies with a clear focus on access, ethical concerns linked to reuse of data, and the digital public space. We believe that these four areas of focus, vast as they are, are crucial to define the future of use of digital cultural heritage. All with an aim to support the notion of a resilient “cultural heritage sector acting with a purpose”.