#3 Policy Recommendation Area
Prioritise purposeful digitisation supporting reuse of cultural heritage collections
3.3 Ensure the participatory character of cultural heritage institutions’ digitisation strategies
Target Stakeholders
Heritage Networks
Cultural Heritage Institutions
Recommendation
In order to appear relevant and valuable to their communities with regard to accessibility and reuse of their collections, most cultural heritage institutions need to develop new, adjusted value proposals for digitisation. These revised approaches should empower a shift towards a more democratic, community-focused practice in digitisation strategies. Dialogue with various communities representing different domains and interests should be the starting point for needs-based digitisation plans, incorporated into general digitisation plans. Collections management should be led not only for preservation but with an audience in mind, prioritising digitisation activities with purpose in mind - e.g. for a particular target audience.
To successfully implement such a working model, cultural heritage institutions must adopt a new mindset based on their knowledge of intellectual property rights (verifying what is legally allowed), impact assessments (allowing a better understanding of the needs and demonstrating the change delivered by such an approach)*, and community co-creation (ability to identify and be in dialogue with different communities, encouraging them to share their needs)**.
