THE DIGITIZATION OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE AT THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ROMANIA. OBJECTIVES AND PERSPECTIVES


Nicoleta Rahme


The National Library of Romania is an important institution constantly focused in the process of long-term preservation and permanent access to the cultural heritage. The purpose of this document is to set out two action areas: first, strengthen efforts to expand and improve access to the digital knowledge and joining partnerships with the libraries from the national system of libraries in order to sustain the sharing of the documentary, technical, human and material resources, and secondly, to define a Public Policy for the digitization of cultural resources and the creation of the Digital Library of Romania, already adopted since January 2008. In this regards, a feasibility research study on digitization, digital preservation and online accessibility of library resources has been conducted among the cultural institutions that own cultural material eligible for digitization. The results of the study give us a proper evaluation and an approach of the documentary corpus of the national library system, the stage of the digitization process, the technical infrastructure, as well as the training level of the staff. Also, a coherent and integrated digitization solution at a national level has been established in compliance with the requests and standards established by The European Digital Library, thus ensuring the interoperability with EDL. The National Library of Romania, by its legal functions, by its structure and organization, by its methodological functions, can coordinate at the level of the national system of libraries the activity of digitization and organization of the Romanian Digital Library.