The global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 disturbed the work of cultural institutions and organisations, however it also encouraged the creation of digital content and gave support for technological advancement in the creation processes of high-quality e-services and e-products.

Memory institutions that are the main custodians of and story tellers about cultural heritage objects face new challenges while trying to adapt to the changing reality. On the other hand, this is also an extraordinary opportunity to present heritage in a new way and to gather a wider community of heritage consumers.

We invite you to discuss about the various challenges and victories of cultural heritage digitalisation with four presenters:

Juozas Markauskas (The Baltic Audiovisual archival Council, Lithuania) “Management of digital Resources“

Dr. Trilce Navarrete (Esasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) “How to stimulate reuse of collections”

Niels Bjørn Friis (Odense City Museum, Denmark) “Culture and Commerce – commercializing cultural heritage. Taking ownership of a brand”

Erik Lillebråten (Norwegian Heritage Foundation, Norway) “Conservation through use. Norwegian Heritage Foundation”

Moderator – dr. Rima Cicėnienė (The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences)

Partners of the presentation session "Digitalization of Cultural Heritage: Challenges and Advantages" - 

Digital resources most often have the attributes characteristic of conventional collections of museums, archives or other cultural organisation, however, for a collection to be appropriately presented and understood by its users, additional digital tools are necessary. Successful management of collections requires a descriptor of metadata and the use of IT solutions. The amount of both digitised and digital cultural objects keeps increasing and that becomes quite a challenge for their management, finding, exchanging and sharing. More and more institutions and organisations start using the solutions created and developed by Wiki Foundation, which enable a successful connection of different collections and reaching a large audience of users on the internet.

Juozas Markaukas - consultations and assistance to organisations in implementing the projects of management and dissemination of digital content. J. Markauskas has implemented projects together with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Europeana, British Library. He is a member of the Digitisation Council of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and President of the Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council.

All the creative products by H.C. Andersen are public domain – that includes his fairy tales, novels, poetry, paper cuts, drawings and decoupage art – this presents enormous issues in terms of brand protection and commercialization. Since 2018 Odense City Museums have been working alongside BARC Scandinavia to professionalize our work with licensing and trademark partnerships with the overall goals:

- to develop the H.C. Andersen brand through national and international collaborations.

- to strengthen the museums ownership of the H.C. Andersen brand.

-  to creates new products and stories with H.C. Andersen's values ​​and artistic practice as a creative leg span.

- to design for the purpose of creating meaning and action in the recipients.

H.C. Andersen is alive in the minds of readers and passionate professionals alike, who feel that their work is akin to H.C. Andersen's work and values. Through our work in collaboration with our partners we explore and protect the values ​​that Andersen and his works represent and bring him alive in new venues and products to a new audience and showcase the continued relevance of Andersen and the values he and his stores carry. We have created the Community for H.C. Andersen for companies, partners, designers and artists. At the heart of Community’s practice is H.C. Andersen’s marvelous ability to show us magic where no one else sees it, his gaze for the play of things and materials and the ability to see the greatest in even the smallest.

Niels Bjørn Friis, Curator/Manager, International Business & Relations at Odense City Museums. I have for the last 4 years been extensively involved in developing and strengthening the H.C. Andersen brand and the museums international profile through partnerships collaboration and exhibitions with a strong focus on China, Korea and Japan.

Norwegian Heritage Foundation works throughout Norway, carrying out practical projects in collaboration with commercial and public sector partners. In addition to personal members, Norwegian Heritage Foundation has a country wide network of collaborating local authorities and commercial members. Norwegian Heritage Foundation is a member of Europa Nostra's Excellence Club and has received two internationally acknowledged prizes for the outstanding quality of its work.

In 2012 the Norwegian Heritage Foundation received both the European Commission's Education and Training “Grand Prix Award”, (the first organisation in Norway to do so) and Europa Nostra's category 4 prize, for Education, Training and Awareness Raising. Both of these awards were for Norwegian Heritage Foundation's “clear a heritage site” campaign. The “Clear a heritage site” has engaged 23 000 children and youngsters in more than 1000 projects. The Heritage School – www.kulturarvskulen.no – was presented in 2018 when we celebrated our 25th anniverasary. It was presented as our gift to all elementary and junior high schools of Norway, for use both by pupils and teachers.

The Heritage School is based on national learning objectives (læringsmål), and present different parts of our heritage through different tasks. Several activities are based on digital tools that kids and youngsters are femiliar with, such as Minecraft and Kahoot.

Erik Lillebråten, Norwegian Heritage Foundation (Norsk Kulturarv) is a charitable foundation that aims to contribute to preserving Norway's cultural heritage through sustainable use.

The Foundation's motto is: CONSERVATION THROUGH USE.