Colleagues may be interested in the following announcement (originally
issued in the Netherlands).

EU grant for photographic project 'SEPIA'

The Public Record Office and the British Library are members of a
consortium led by the European Commission on Preservation and Access
(ECPA) which has received one of fifty-five subsidies granted to cultural
projects
under the European Union's framework programme 'Culture 2000' for its
project
'Safeguarding European Photographic Images for Access' (SEPIA).

The SEPIA project deals with historic photographic collections that are an
essential part of the European cultural heritage. The project's aims are (1)
to promote awareness of the need to preserve photographic collections, (2)
to provide training for professionals involved in preservation and
digitisation of photographic collections and (3) to develop an overall
framework under which future projects in the area of preservation and
access of photographic materials can be brought together.

Activities of the SEPIA project will include expert meetings and workshops
to train those working with photographic collections. A survey report on
the status of preservation and digitisation of photographic collections in
Europe will be published. In addition an introductory text on (preservation
of) photographic collections will be prepared, and the ECPA's website will
be expanded with a section on photographs. An open conference on the
management of photographic collections will close the activities at the
end of the experimental year, in June 2000 in the UK (at the PRO).
Preliminary
details of the conference will, we hope, be announced before long.

The ECPA will coordinate the SEPIA project. Its partners are: Centre de
Recherches sur la Conservation des Documents Graphiques (CRCDG) (Paris,
France); National Photographic Conservation Studios (Rotterdam, The
Netherlands); Public Record Office (Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom);
Stockholm City Museum (Stockholm, Sweden); The British Library (London,
United Kingdom); The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki, Finland) and
The Royal Library of Denmark (Copenhagen, Denmark).

The Culture 2000 programme of the European Commission aims to strengthen
cooperation between Europeans on a cultural level. Since the beginning of
this
year it has taken over from the programmes Kaleidoscope (for the "living
arts"),
Ariane (for literature) and Raphaël (for cultural heritage). The call for
application of experimental measures in the framework of Culture 2000 was
published in June 1999. For more information on Culture 2000, see:
<http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg10/culture/program-2000_en.html>

For more information please contact:
Yola de Lusenet, Executive Secretary
European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA)
P.O. Box 19121
1000 GC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel. ++31-20-551 08 39
fax ++31-20-620 49 41
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa




---------------
Tim Padfield
Copyright Officer
Curator of Photographs
Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on Public Records

Public Record Office
Tel: 020-8876 3444 ext 2351
Fax: 020-8392 5295


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