After four years (2018-2022) the European Digital Treasures (EDT) project, co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme, slowly comes to an end in December 2022.
The project European Digital Treasures: Management of centennial archives in the 21st century (EDT) aims at bringing joint European heritage, especially its digital versions, major visibility, outreach and use.
The consortium of seven partners from seven countries unites a multi-stakeholder team comprised of state archives, a technological institute, a cultural incubator, a research institution and an international network of cultural heritage institutions.
The work packages & the activities
The various project activities are split into four main work packages with different sub tasks:
- WP 1: New Business Models for European Archives in the XXI Century
- WP 2: Stories of the History
WP 3: Working with new Target Audiences - WP 4: Communication & Dissemination
In the following we want to highlight some of the activities and their outcomes. You can find all information, material and reports about it on the European Digital Treasures website.
SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS
- 42 European archival institutions were contacted to gather data on the existing business models applied in each European country by the archives – see the details here.
- 37 good practices and new trends in the management of cultural institutions were identified – click here.
- Innovation on new digital exponential technologies towards the generation of Business Models workshop had 450 participants (online & in person) and 12 professional speakers from seven EU countries.
- 26 new managerial actions towards the generation of business models were tested in the five National Archives partners of EDT, reaching a great deal of professionals and users.
- New Business & Conceptual Models workshop, coordinated by ICARUS in the framework of its #28 ICARUS convention in Paris, gathered 96 in person and an average of 25 in remote from its network of over 160 archives and scientific institutions.
- Within the project, EDT gathered and worked with 12 graphic and industrial designers from six different countries that have developed 50 merchandising product designs – see details here.
- 21 professionals from the archival world and six experts from the video game sector gathered at the Archives and Videogames AltspaceVR meeting in April 2021 – learn more and see the video here.
- More than 70 archivists have worked on the preselection of 320 documents for the three planned exhibitions and on the identification, selection and contextualization of the 120 documents that were finally selected.
- Organization of three Transmedia Exhibitions roaming through the partner-countries: 1. The Construction of Europe, 2. Exiles, migratory flows & solidarity, 3. European Discoveries.
- 140 documents were selected from 46 archival organizations from 12 countries.
- IT professionals from MTU have created various transmedia interactive products (Videogame, App & storytelling): See and try them here.
- More than 70.000 persons visited the 18 exhibitions in 6 different countries!
- 35 teachers from five countries tested the three modules that composed the Archival literacy online course and 12 specialists in archives and education have worked for its development alongside the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning IT of MTU in the technology area.
- 105 professionals from the archival and educational world were part of the webinar on the Literacy Online Course on May 2021.
- 11 teenage students and six monitors participated in the 2019 summer camp.
- 16 teenage students and seven monitors participated in Young Digital Treasures summer camp in Hungary in July 2022.
- A total of 889 validated responses from silver users (+60) were obtained (far more than the 550 planned) reaching eight European countries (Malta, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Spain) from the Silver Researchers and Hobbyist survey.
- 169 silver users from 15 countries participated in the crowdsourcing activities developed in the last quarter of 2021.
- The Universidad Politécnica de Valencia through their company TransKriptorium and their handwritten recognition technology has developed and monitorised the technical part of the crowdsourcing activity.
- Creative Encounter in Cork: Seven film directors, four experts on design thinking and storytelling (from the comic & documentary world) and 3 archival professionals were part of the encounter in MTU premises (Cork) in April 2022.
- Seven short documentaries are being created as part of the Treasures in Archives contest – they are based on archival documents.
- Have a look at the various videos created within the EDT project here and view the material and games created for the the roaming transmedia exhibitions.
A final conference with the presentation of the results of the EDT project will be held on 12 December in Valladolid (Spain). It will be open to the public and it will be streamed.
