Origins of the Project
The Culture within Reach 2.0 project is a direct continuation of the ‘e-Services – e-Organisation – package of IT solutions for organisational units of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship’ project, the e-Culture module, carried out in the previous programming period 2007 – 2013.
The project leader, the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship, together with the project partners, had already taken the following measures to support the region’s cultural sector:
Origins of the Project
The Culture within Reach 2.0 project is a direct continuation of the ‘e-Services – e-Organisation – package of IT solutions for organisational units of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship’ project, the e-Culture module, carried out in the previous programming period 2007 – 2013.
The project leader, the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship, together with the project partners, had already taken the following measures to support the region’s cultural sector:
Benefits of implementing the project
a regional portal www.kulturawzasiegu.pl was created, also available as a mobile application, which gathers and systematizes information on culture in the region. The kulturawzasiegu.pl website is a place for cultural institutions, animators, creators – broadcasters. It is also a place for participants looking for information – art consumers.
an electronic Digital Signage poster system was implemented – one of the most modern and effective communication tools in urban space. The system consists of more than 70 large-format screens placed in 23 locations throughout the province. The project partners provide information about their own offerings and promote each other.
cultural institutions were supplied with digitalization equipment. Cultural institutions have been equipped with 28 professional digitalization kits (scanners, reprographic workstations, tables and shadowless tents, together with dedicated computer hardware and software), enabling the creation of electronic copies of regional heritage objects such as publications (books, atlases, maps, magazines, newspapers, etc.), posters, artwork, microfilms, etc.
a digital resource of regional heritage has been created, including paintings (257 objects), graphics (over 300 objects), cartography (over 1,100 maps and 3,050 pages of atlases), publications (including: books 8,500 pages, magazines approximately 65,000 pages), audio and video recordings (29,000 minutes), posters and posters (over 2,000 objects) and more.
training and workshops were held for project participants on copyright issues, computer graphics, digital videography and digital photography.
JUSTIFICATION FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE “CULTURE WITHIN REACH 2.0” PROJECT
In the third quarter of 2016, an analysis of the situation of cultural institutions in the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship was carried out by means of a questionnaire survey to determine the status in terms of cultural resources held and expectations regarding these resources.
Despite the implementation of measures to support the region’s cultural sector in the project “e-Services – e-Organisation – a package of IT solutions for organisational units of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship”, according to the results of surveys conducted in the third quarter of 2016, most cultural units operating in the region had only a small percentage of digitized collections (often 0-5%). In contrast, larger and more advanced units in this field had resources so extensive that, despite specialized digitalization departments, it could take them up to several decades to process the material into digital form.
JUSTIFICATION FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE “CULTURE WITHIN REACH 2.0” PROJECT
In the third quarter of 2016, an analysis of the situation of cultural institutions in the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship was carried out by means of a questionnaire survey to determine the status in terms of cultural resources held and expectations regarding these resources.
Despite the implementation of measures to support the region’s cultural sector in the project “e-Services – e-Organisation – a package of IT solutions for organisational units of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship”, according to the results of surveys conducted in the third quarter of 2016, most cultural units operating in the region had only a small percentage of digitized collections (often 0-5%). In contrast, larger and more advanced units in this field had resources so extensive that, despite specialized digitalization departments, it could take them up to several decades to process the material into digital form.
Project description
The Marshal’s Office of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship is using modern technologies to protect the region’s cultural heritage. By implementing the “Culture within Reach 2.0” Project, it is retrofitting the region’s cultural institutions with modern equipment, digitizing their valuable resources and, by creating modern web portals, bringing them within global reach.
Project description
The Marshal’s Office of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship is using modern technologies to protect the region’s cultural heritage. By implementing the “Culture within Reach 2.0” Project, it is retrofitting the region’s cultural institutions with modern equipment, digitizing their valuable resources and, by creating modern web portals, bringing them within global reach.
The direct objective of the Project is to make available to all those interested, mainly the region’s inhabitants, the tools for active participation in the region’s cultural events as well as, by digitizing the resources of museums, libraries and other institutions, to preserve the region’s heritage for future generations.
Information about the project
Description of the Project “CULTURE WITHIN THE REACH 2.0”
The aim of the project is to provide all those interested, mainly the region’s inhabitants, with the tools to actively participate in the region’s cultural events and, by digitizing the resources of cultural institutions, to preserve the region’s heritage for future generations.
Implementation of the Project will increase the availability of cultural resources and contribute to the economic development of the region, as well as ensure continuity of support for the cultural sector of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship. Priority objectives of the Project will be achieved through a number of tasks including an increase in the scope of application of information and communication technologies in the sphere of public services through digitalization, publication and application of regional heritage resources held by cultural entities.
Digitalization, apart from being a kind of safety copy, makes it possible to make the collections digitally available to the public and to use them for various purposes, e.g. for promotional purposes or for virtual tours. Thanks to the implementation of the Project, the region’s heritage will become widely available to those interested in it, it will be easier to carry out scientific research, and the use of the digitized resource for promotional and guiding purposes will have a significant impact on the tourist life of the region, e.g. by making it easier for foreigners to participate in it.
Project implementation stages
The first stage of the ‘Culture within Reach 2.0’ project is the digitalization of the cultural heritage of Kuyavia and Pomerania. However, in order for everyone to be able to appreciate and exploit the immense potential of the digitalization process, it is important both to make the digitized collections properly available to the public and to use them for various purposes, e.g. for promotion or virtual touring. Each of these activities is included in the planned stages of the project.
The various stages of the Culture within Reach 2.0 project are intended to contribute not only to promoting the cultural entities participating in the project, but also to promoting the brand of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship as a patron of culture in its digital dimension.
To fully realise the tasks we have set ourselves in terms of promoting and digitizing the cultural assets of Kuyavia and Pomerania, the following project phases need to be completed:
1. Digitalization of regional cultural heritage resources, which is envisaged to be carried out in three models applied depending on the size of the collections to be digitized:
- service model,
- proprietary model
- mixed model.
In the service model, digitalization of collections will be carried out as part of an external digitalization service purchased on the market. This model will be preferred for cultural units for which it will be unjustified to purchase equipment in-house due to relatively small digitalization needs and a small increase in the number of artifacts to be digitized. Digitalization in the service model will be carried out for 146 collections comprising several to tens of thousands of objects.
In the proprietary model, digitalization will be carried out using their own equipment already in place and equipment purchased as part of this Project. This model is preferred for cultural units with large collections to be digitized or those which register a steady growth of new artifacts to be digitized. Partners of the Project will be equipped with approximately 160 extensive sets for digitalization work, i.e. 2D and 3D scanners, sets for photographs, video, video equipment and equipment for digitalization of analogue audio and video media, workstations, accompanying hardware and software. Several thousand components in total.
2. Preparing the digital collections for publication by placing the digitized objects in the cloud and creating a unified electronic repository containing catalogued digitized audio, video and 2D and 3D graphic objects (these objects are envisaged to be stored using an object-based storage system). The repository will be equipped with a back-office accessible to the object owners (Partners) via a VPN, which will allow them to manage the digital assets and define the conditions for their publication. In addition, the repository will be equipped with an open API that will allow objects to be searched and downloaded for publication. The repository will allow downloading the appropriate issue format of the resource depending on the needs of the environment in which the resource will be published and reproduced. Most of the resources collected in the repository would then be made available online in the form of a virtual museum and Digital Guidance Platform and in urban spaces (Electronic Poster System displays).
3. Launching electronic services in the form of a ‘virtual museum’ publishing platform and associated systems (integrated booking and ticketing systems).
“Virtual museum” will be a mechanism for the presentation of digitized national and regional heritage resources. “Virtual museum” is planned as a platform presenting digitized resources in an attractive and easily accessible form providing an overview of the artifacts of a selected cultural institution. It is planned to link the “virtual museum” with the kulturawzasiegu.pl portal (existing product), digital guiding application (product planned in the Project), ticket reservation systems (product planned in the Project), Kuyavian and Pomeranian Digital Library platform (existing product).
In addition to the above services, each Partner can use the ‘virtual museum’ to present its collection in the part that cannot be presented due to lack of exhibition space or the condition of the artifact.
Integrated booking and ticketing systems
On the one hand, they will make it possible to organize an efficient, convenient and coherent system available to institutions, and on the other hand, they will create a convenient and modern ticket reservation system for the inhabitants of the voivodeship and tourists. One of the tasks of the system will be to provide information on events organized by individual institutions located in various cities of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Voivodeship. Possible later integration of the booking systems launched at individual Partners will result in the dissemination of information about the repertoire of smaller entities located in smaller municipalities. Currently, the repertoire of smaller units is often overlooked by residents of neighboring municipalities or towns, as well as tourists.
4. Launch of a systemic solution allowing for building and making available digital guiding applications (based on the so-called augmented reality) and urban games for mobile platforms – i.e. the Digital Guiding Platform. The platform will enable the creation of interactive multilingual guides to museum exhibitions, towns, trails using objects digitized as part of this Project. The system using modern technologies (proximity sensors, augmented reality, localization) will allow the user to obtain contextual information on selected objects in the exhibition halls and in the urban space. It will also enable the creation of simple field tasks and quizzes to test the knowledge gained. Interactive guides created by the Project Partners will be available on visitors’ mobile devices (and tablets equipped with the given Partner’s facility). The urban games system created as part of the module will be available for use during events such as the Festival of the Voivodeship, Museums’ Night and various tourist projects.
5. Promotion of the regional cultural offer and regional heritage resources, including, among other things, the expansion of the Electronic Poster System initiated under the ROP 2007-2013 in both functional and quantitative terms.
The modern consumer of information expects individual treatment and demands innovation in both form and content. Such innovation – moving away from paper and towards an electronic, dynamic form – is provided by the use of electronic posters (Digital Signage). Such devices can simultaneously broadcast multimedia and information messages synchronized from different sources. Such an approach significantly extends the informational scope of the standard ‘analogue’ poster. The screens used as part of the electronic poster system will be used to present digitized objects and will also constitute a further development step for the cultural events database co-created by the Project Partners.
As a complementary element to other activities of the Project, it is planned to carry out trainings preparing employees of the Project Partners to qualify digitized objects for publication. It will be important for persons responsible for digitalization to have the knowledge and skills necessary to determine whether a given publication is allowed, and if so, on what terms. Selected staff of Partners interested in digitalization will also be provided with knowledge on the standards used in digitalization processes – ways of describing collections, rules for moving objects, ways of managing documentation describing collections, and rules on the security of storing and making digitized resources available.
