Author: Rob Davies

          http://www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/interpret_europe_trend_analysis_2016.pdf As part of Interpret Europe’s (IE) strategic development process, this study is based on a short-term volunteer research project undertaken by 15 IE members at the request of IE Management. It defines more than 60 trends that may affect the development of heritage interpretation (HI) in Europe within the five next years. Paving the way for a later SWOT analysis (analysing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to IE), the study also highlights the opportunities and threats resulting from IE’s macro-environment. As a STEP analysis, the research focuses on socio-cultural, technological, economic and political trends. The two latter are split into two parts each: one for general economic trends and one focused on economic trends related to tourism, and one for natural heritage and one for cultural heritage as European policy in these two fields is clearly separate. In this context, it should nevertheless be emphasised that UNESCO claims “respect for cultural and biological diversity as a whole” and advocates for “an inclusive approach, considering environmental, cultural and socio-economic needs“ when highlighting the role of heritage for the transformational change towards sustainability (The Kyoto Vision 2012). There are five trends where the impact on HI has been assessed as extremely high:  Slow economic growth leading to declining heritage funding  Increased emphasis on people and ‘heritage communities’  Search for authenticity, quality...

              What is on the five-year horizon for museums? Which trends and technologies will drive changes to museum education and interpretation? What are the challenges that we consider as solvable or difficult to overcome, and how can we strategize effective solutions? These questions and similar inquiries regarding technology adoption and educational change steered the collaborative research and discussions of a body of 44 experts to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2016 Museum Edition, in partnership with the Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC). Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational and interpretive technology are placed directly in the context of their likely impact on the core missions of museums. View the work that produced the report on the project wiki. > Download the report...

1st Call for Papers SPECIAL TRACK on METADATA & SEMANTICS for CULTURAL COLLECTIONS & APPLICATIONS Part of the 11th International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR 2017),  November 28th – December 1st 2017, Tallinn, Estonia Submission deadline: June 15th, 2017 Proceedings will be published in Springer CCIS series AIM AND SCOPE Cultural Heritage collections are essential knowledge infrastructures that provide a solid representation of the historical background of human communities. These knowledge infrastructures are constructed from and integrate cultural information derived from diverse memory institutions, mainly libraries, archives and museums. Each individual community has spent a lot of effort in order to develop, support and promote its own metadata as tools for the description and dissemination of cultural information, mainly related to its particular resources and use.  The management of the cultural information has to deal with challenges related to (i) metadata  modeling, specification, standardization, extraction, evaluation, mapping, integration and effective use, (ii) knowledge representation as conceptualization to provide the context for unambiguously interpreting metadata, and (iii) information integration from different contexts for the provision of integrated access and advanced services to the users.  At the same time, there are also inter-domain efforts targeted to semantically align data (research data, educational data, public sector information etc.) to cultural information. New challenges are  also emerged from the need to incorporate cultural information into the new publication paradigms, where a variety...

The workshop assessed the potential of Copernicus in support of Cultural Heritage preservation and management, and to provide inputs for further research and/or operational implementation. The objectives of the workshop were: To identify intermediate and end-users’ needs in the Cultural Heritage domain, and assess and characterise space-based applications in support of Cultural Heritage at EU and global level To assess capabilities and outline requirements for Copernicus-based products/services in support of Cultural Heritage To propose and assess implementation scenarios for a structured Copernicus-based approach for Cultural Heritage support The workshop  aimed at identifying the main user requirements for space-based applications associated to the preservation and management of cultural heritage assets in Europe and Worldwide. Opportunities for standardisation were analysed, taking into account what is already done in some European Countries, with risk assessments associated to each Cultural asset subject to environmental risks. The main focus was however on the characterisation and mapping of Copernicus capabilities and existing solutions over the identified user needs, and the identification of potential evolutions to effectively support cultural heritage needs. Different scenarios were assessed: A new Cultural Heritage Copernicus Service Cultural heritage as part of an existing Copernicus Service The structured use of a Combination of Copernicus Services for cultural heritage A follow-up of Copernicus Products tailored for cultural heritage. Out of those, a preferred option will later be identified. http://workshop.copernicus.eu/cultural-heritage Presentations are now available...

SPECTRUM 5.0 consultation draft now online for comment The consultation draft for SPECTRUM 5.0, the UK collections management standard that is also used by museums in many countries around the world, is now online at http://collectionstrust.org.uk/spectrum/spectrum-5/  ...