Dear MCG'ers,

A number of you will be aware that we are entering the final stages of the European MinervaEC project, leading up to a conference in Leipzig at the end of the month.

One of the main things to come out of MinervaEC is the delivery of the MINERVA Technical Guidelines. These will be familiar to many of you since they originated with the NOF-Digitise funding programme, but they have since evolved into an international guideline which has been adopted in a number of European Member States, including the UK.

The reason I am raising this is that we are now entering the very final stages of consultation about the guidelines before they are delivered. Once completed, they are likely to inform priorities and requirements for any future national funding going into digitisation and digital service delivery.

The deadline for the consultation is the 16th September. The UK response is being coordinated by Kate Fernie, and the Collections Trust has undertaken to collate as much feedback as possible into our own response. If you have time (and I'm aware that the deadline is pressing), we would be very grateful if you could take a look at the draft Guidelines (version 1.3) at http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/minerva and let us have any thoughts or comments. It is worth taking the time to respond because these guidelines will shape much of the UK's current and future work on digital cultural content within Europe.

This work is part of the Collections Trust's role in coordinating UK activity towards Europeana (formerly the European Digital Library). We have posted information about this, and a number of our other Digital initiatives on the website at http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk. We are also shortly to announce two new blogs - OpenCulture and CT International - which we will be using to keep the community posted about our current work and priorities.

Best regards,

Nick


Nick Poole
Chief Executive
Collections Trust

Registered offices: 22 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP

Registered Charity no. 273984

Telephone (switchboard): 01223 316 028

www.collectionstrust.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
www.discs-uk.info


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