Rivista "IBC" XI, 2003, 4
Dossier: L'IBC per l'Europa
musei e beni culturali, biblioteche e archivi, dossier /
European Community (EC) programmes have been and still are one of the key tools for European integration. Through the support given to projects revolving around priority action lines, the European Union (EU) financially promotes territorial development while encouraging close co-operation between different Member States which, thanks to cross-border planning initiatives, are motivated to achieve common goals and share operational and managing procedures. After about one decade since the Institute for Natural, Artistic and Cultural Heritage (IBC) first participated to projects financed by the EU, its role and commitment as regards EC programmes devoted to cultural and natural heritage (but also other domains) is emerging.
Scientific co-operation with other countries already existed and was based on a long and well-established tradition rich in exhibitions, conferences and cultural exchanges. Before the process of co-operation and support promoted by the EU started, scientific and financial co-operation was set up at the end of the 1980s, when the IBC participated in one of the most successful cultural initiatives in the field of rare books ever: the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL). The CERL developed and constantly updates the Hand Press Book (HPB) data base, so that scholars of all disciplines can reliably and easily access over a million records containing the European printed heritage from its origin to about 1830. The number of records in the HPB data base is increasing, data being provided by the libraries belonging to the CERL, an association of about 60 important institutes (some of which are based in Eastern Europe), among which are the British Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the ICCU, Italian national libraries, the Russian National Library, a number of important universities and research centres. The CERL also developed the Thesaurus File, containing lists of place-names, publishers, printers and authors. This allows scholars to conduct their research regardless of all possible variants in the form of names used in the different catalogues provided by European member libraries. Since the year 2000, la Soprintendenza per i beni librari e documentari of the IBC has developed and implemented a strategy applied to the use of the HPB database, monitoring and information, open to a number of local libraries covering the whole regional area which have been selected in consideration of the cultural assets they store and their experience in shared cataloguing processes. The CERL and its initiatives are entirely financed by its associated members. This means that, although its goals and strategies are those of a great European project and although it operates in the view of the integration of people and resources, a core issue of all EC initiatives, it is not financially supported by the Commission.
It is worth underlying that the IBC has always paid great attention to the opportunities offered by EC programmes and initiatives, from those explicitly aimed at the promotion of the cultural heritage to those devoted to education, technology and territorial development. The Soprintendenza of the IBC first participated in a European project in the context of the Fourth Framework Programme, basically a technology-oriented programme for research and development launched in the second half of the 1990s. The programme highlighted the key role of co-operation as a tool for implementing EU policies and promoting co-operation between commercial, industrial, academic and institutional worlds. Specific attention was devoted by the Commission to the application of Information and Communication Technologies to libraries. Within this context, the CASA (A Cooperative Archive of Serials and Articles) project was developed. Partners to the project were the University of Bologna, the CNR, the ISSN centres in Paris, Rome, Athens and Oslo, the ICCU, the University of Edinburgh and the Soprintendenza of the IBC. The objective was to develop a common-shared system for storing, identifying and meta-cataloguing serials and a user-friendly interface for accessing contents and services, namely the localisation of serials and databases. At a European level the project wanted to support the spreading of library networks, harmonise the services offered by different Member States and optimise the use of resources, through the development of library systems, telematic systems for library co-operation and networking and library services for access to networked information. This project focused on highlighting and spreading the knowledge of library assets at a local level. While IBC's participation in the CERL initiative paved the way for a joint management of resources, including financial ones, CASA was the first formal experience of co-operation, also at a financial level, between different Member States, according to the guidelines and rules set by the Commission.
IBC's participation in technology-oriented programmes still continues under the Epoch project, one of the initiatives of the Sixth Framework Programme (which will be described below by Franco Niccolucci). The IBC is also involved in the Fifth Framework Programme, through the co-operation with the MINERVA project whose objective is to coordinate the policies of Member States' Ministries for Culture in the field of new technologies. Within the MINERVA project the IBC, in its quality of representative of the Board of Regional Councillors for Culture of the Italian Regions and Provinces, ensures a direct connection with the whole Italian territory and regional visibility, in a country where Local Authorities are entrusted the management of most cultural assets. Specific attention was paid to the quality of web sites, benchmarking and metadata. Participation in work groups has allowed the dissemination of experiences on digitisation developed by city libraries and museums.
The EC initiative ADAPT BIS (Building the Information Society), consolidating a programme launched in 1994, was developed to fund projects aimed to help the workforce adapt to industrial change and to promote growth, employment and the competitiveness of companies in the European Union as well as continuous vocational training. ADAPT funded projects in the areas of training, guidance, development of networking and support structures for job creation and offer, adapting existing support structures, promoting awareness and dissemination of results. All European projects were based on the principle of transnationality, meaning that projects had to be partnered with projects in other Member States which were focused on similar or complementary priorities. Thus, integration not only concerned the final beneficiaries of the projects, but also individuals and organisations involved in their development, which were forced to harmonise their actions as well as their administrative and working procedures. In 1997 the IBC applied for the ADAPT programme both as a promoter and partner with two different projects: ASCESI and CU.L.TUR.A.
Partners to the first one, developed by the Soprintendenza of the IBC, were Amitié srl, AIE (Italian Publishers Association), ECAP Emilia-Romagna (Bologna), Centro Italiano di Documentazione sulla Cooperazione e l'Economia Sociale, Bologna (Italian Centre for Co-operation and Social Economy), FAST (Federation of Scientific and Technical Associations, Milan), Associação p/o Desenvolvimento, Investigação e Inovação Social, Lisbon, Chambre Régionale de Commerce et d'Industrie Bretagne, Rennes, Institut Universitaire de Technologie, St. Nazaire, Haringey Council Central Library, London. After surveying and analysing the employment situation in publishing companies in Italy and Emilia-Romagna in particular, a number of educational tools for the publishing world was developed. The objective was to establish correct procedures in the drawing up of contracts with the public sector, promote e-marketing and e-commerce, study the impact of new technologies on cultural content publishing and develop promotional techniques for bookshops. The Project modules were available on the Internet (however the number of accesses to the Internet was still low) and dedicated Internet points were located in the Soprintendenza of the IBC and the library of the Centre for Co-operation and Social Economy. The project brought together the public and the private sector thus creating a new synergy between research, education, libraries and application of new technologies. Many years after the end of the project, requests of information or inquiries on the use of project modules are still submitted.
The CU.L.TUR.A projects was realised within the REGIONES BIS initiative promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Region. Partners to the project were FIA Consortium (leading partner), IAL Emilia-Romagna, ISCOM E.R., SINFORM, NOMISMA, C.R.C., IAM srl, Sindacato Nazionale Artisti CGIL (Artists Union), the Provinces of Bologna, Piacenza, Rimini, Unione Albergatori E.R. (Emilia-Romagna Hotel Keepers Association), FIPE, the University of Bologna, (Rimini department) and a number of art schools of Emilia-Romagna. A CD-Rom application for artistic and historical museums and a study about innovative professional profiles connected with the application of new technologies in museums were developed. The framework of the EQUAL initiative, which followed the ADAPT programme, did not include the direct participation of the public sector, but the Soprintendenza of the IBC is nevertheless a member of the steering committee of the ABSIDE project aimed at developing educational tools for libraries.
The IBC also participated in the Culture 2000 programme, which is one of the key tools for the development of projects aimed at the preservation of the cultural heritage. The objective of Culture 2000 is to promote a common European cultural space by encouraging co-operation between artists, cultural actors, private and public supporters, cultural institutions of different Member States and of other countries eligible for participating in the programme. The IBC participated in 4 projects: Terpsychore, Les Chemins de la mémoire, PAPHE, ECA. For the first two projects the IBC respectively catalogued videos of dancing performances and a number of historical places related to the two world wars.
Terpsychore was first developed in the framework of the Raphael Programme, (then merged into Culture 2000) and its objective was to develop and co-ordinate the implementation of a network of archives of videos of dancing performances, thus preserving the cultural, artistic and historical value of European dance. Project's coordinator was the Deutsches Tanzfilminstitute (Bremen) and partners to the project were IBC, Vlaams Theater Institut in Bruxelles, NAPOLI DANZA Association in Naples, the following associated partners: Riccione Teatro, Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, Polski Osrodek in Warsaw, Magyar Tancmuveszek Szovetsege in Budapest, Carina Ari Stiftelsen in Sockholm, VideoPlace in London. A multilingual OPAC (French, English, Italian and German) was developed, catalogued data produced by the other partners were retrieved, analysed and imported into a shared database. A further database on theatre video libraries in European Member States was developed and 980 videos were restored, 120 of which belonging to the Aterballetto association in Reggio Emilia.
The leading partner of the Les chemins de la mémoire was the Mémorial de Caen (Normandy-France), while other partners were the Haus der Geschichte-Bonn (Germany), the D-Day Museum-Portsmouth (England), the Paz-Gernika Museum (Spain); the CEGES (Belgium). For this project a multilingual (5 languages) web site was developed about the places of the remembrance of six Member Countries related to the First and Second World Wars in Europe and The Civil War in Spain. For each place, a historical and a tourist presentation were created, indicating places and buildings worth a visit and a number of black & white and colour images.
The PAPHE project - present and future of European hospitals heritage - has been proposed by Paris Hospitals and presented by seven institutions of different Member States in co-operation with the IBC (architectural and environmental department). Its objective was to emphasise the importance of European hospital architectural heritage, because since the Middle Ages, hospital architectural models spread throughout Europe following a regular pattern. Hospitals testify to the close link between the history of architecture and the history of medicine, which, in ultimate analysis, is the history of society itself.
The Este Court collections were at the centre of the ECA (Este Court Archives) project, developed by the Province of Ferrara together with French and German partner museums containing works of art from Ferrara, CINECA (Bologna), the IBC (museum department) and San Petersburg Hermitage as associate partners. A data base and a web site were developed, thus allowing researchers to compare cataloguing traditions and to virtually reconstruct an endangered and otherwise dispersed cultural heritage.
As a proof of the variety of programmes which, independently from their specific area of activity, involve the cultural heritage sector, the IBC is presently committed to participate in the INTERREG programme, whose priority goal is to strengthen the economic and social cohesion in the EU and to promote the sustainable development of the European regions. The IBC (the architectural and environmental department in particular) is currently working within the CASTRUM project, led by the Piemonte Region, for promoting territories and little towns of the Mediterranean region which are characterised by the presence of castles, watch towers, city walls and the use of these sites for exhibitions or cultural activities. Special attention was paid to identifying historical areas which in the past centuries were at the centre of important human and commercial flows testified by the presence of castles and which are presently almost abandoned. The project concerns eight Italian regions and two Spanish ones.
Through its Museum Department, the IBC is also the leading partner of the ITER project aiming at developing innovative technological and methodological tools to identify, protect and strengthen historical spas along an ideal itinerary connecting Emilia-Romagna to Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. The objective is to create an integrated system presenting the riches of spas, not only in terms of their therapeutic properties, but also of their works of art as well as historical sites and buildings which can be visited along this itinerary, through the development of a complex cataloguing, geo-referential database. This means finding a link between the historical evolution of spas with other existing information system such as risk maps in order to offer complete and detailed data to be used by private and public operators to promote the development of these areas. A cultural itinerary will also be created connecting the places examined.
In the context of the INTERREG programme the IBC will submit its application, together with other partners, for two projects concerning respectively Roman archaeology, historical villas and houses. These projects represent the natural extension of IBC's activities in the field of artistic and historical heritage as well as environmental and architectural assets and comply with regional policies in this sector.
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