IT and Culture: Europe to speed up digitization of cultural heritage

On October 28th 2011 the European Commission called upon all 27 EU Member States to step up their efforts to transfer cultural works into digital formats to preserve them for the future as film stock, old books and vinyl records risk disappearing with the passage of time. "Europe has probably the world's greatest cultural heritage," said Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. "It cannot afford to miss the opportunities offered by digitization and hence face cultural decline."

Once transferred to a digital format, material will be available through Europeana, a website which currently provides access to 19 million storage items online. Ms. Kroes wants 30 million objects in Europeana by 2015.

Private help is necessary to achieve this; the commission estimates the cost of digitizing the collections of Europe's museums, archives and libraries, at about €100 billion. The EU will contribute €3.7 million a year from 2011-2013 to the project, as well as indirect funding through research projects.

Experts of the book market say that old manuscripts can decompose due to acidity, moisture, insects and mould. Early films on cellulose stock deteriorate before finally turning into a rust-like powder. According to the U.S. National Film preservation Board, part of the Library of Congress, fewer than 20% of American silent films still survive, and half of the American films produced before 1950 no longer exist.

In the U.K. the British Film Institute is calling for donations to raise the £2 million necessary to restore and preserve nine early silent films. Similar projects are underway in a number of South America countries.