On November 19th National AthenaPlus and Lithuanian Council for Culture Conference „The Reuse of Digital Cultural Heritage for the Development of Tourism in Lithuania and Increasing Museum Attendance” was held in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum in Vilnius. It was organized by the Lithuanian Art Museum’s (LAM) department, Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS (LM CID LIMIS).

During the conference (photo by T. Kapočius).

Over 100 professionals from over 40 Lithuanian museums and 4 libraries came to the event. During the conference current situation of Lithuanian memory institutions in the fields of digitisation and dissemination of cultural heritage was analysed. Moreover, new developments regarding reuse of digital cultural heritage in order to promote cultural tourism in Lithuania and increase museum attendance were reviewed and discussed. Furthermore, guidelines on how to disseminate and actualize digital cultural content for tourist purposes were outlined. Also, common problems of GLAM sector in Lithuania were discussed and possibilities for towards inter-institutional and cross-sectorial cooperation were highlighted.

Promotion of the AthenaPlus project, raising interest in new tools being created and tested during its implementation was very important part of the conference. As a result, participants were introduced with activities of the AthenaPlus, its first results and new tools being tested. The main focus was put on MOVIO tool for staging virtual online exhibitions. LAM’s pilot exhibition “Architecture and Visual Arts at the Old University of Vilnius” served as an example of MOVIO functionalities. Last but not least, participants were invited to become involved in AthenaPlus activities, especially in the testing or providing professional feedback for further development of new tools. During the event several institutions already had expressed their interest in such involvement.

The presentations of the conference (in Lithuanian):

1. Erika Buivydienė, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Information Society Development Division. Digitization of Lithuanian Cultural Heritage: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities.

2. Ernestas Adomaitis, Lithuanian Art Museum’s department Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS. Development of Digital Storytelling in Lithuania and Abroad.

3. Donatas Snarskis, Lithuanian Art Museum’s department Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS. The AthenaPlus Project and New Creative Tools for the Reuse of Digital Cultural Content.

4. Šarūnas Bagdonas, Lithuanian Art Museum’s department Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS. EuropenaSpace for the Creative Reuse of Digital Cultural Heritage.

5. Rima Cicėnienė, PhD, the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Projects of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences for Promotion and Actualisation of Digital Cultural Heritage.

6. Elona Malaiškienė, Vilnius University Library Digitisation department. Digital Cultural Heritage for the Open Access: Experience of Vilnius University Library.

7. Andrius Šuminas, PhD, Vilnius University Faculty of Communication, Media Research Laboratory. Reuse of Digital Cultural Content: Results and Conclusions of Researches Conducted by Media Research Laboratory of Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University.

8. Danutė Mukienė and Laimutė Strolytė, Lithuanian Art Museum’s department Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS. The Most Interesting, Unique, and Valuable Museum Objects in Virtual Exhibitions for Tourists: New Lithuanian Museums Virtual Exhibitions System.

9. Viktorija Jonkutė, Lithuanian Art Museum’s department Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS. Implementation of the EuropeanaPhotography Project in Lithuania and Results Achieved.

10. Danutė Mukienė, Lithuanian Art Museum’s department Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS. Reuse of Museums’ Digital Content for Building and Developing Public E-Services of the Lithuanian Integral Museum Information System (LIMIS).

Danutė Mukienė, Head of the LAM’s Department the LM CID LIMIS (photo by T. Kapočius).	Erika Buivydienė, Chief Specialist of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Information Society Development Division (photo by T. Kapočius).
Ernestas Adomaitis, System Website (LIMIS) Administrator of the LAM’s Department the LM CID LIMIS (photo by T. Kapočius).	Donatas Snarskis, Chief Specialist of the AthenaPlus Project at the LAM’s Department the LM CID LIMIS (photo by T. Kapočius).

Participants of the conference (photo by T. Kapočius).	Discussions during the coffee-brake (photo by T. Kapočius).
Dr. Rima Cicėnienė, Deputy Director for science of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (photo by T. Kapočius).	Elona Malaiškienė, Head of Digitisation Department of Vilnius University Library (photo by T. Kapočius).