On September 20-25, 2010 the specialists from Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS (LM IDC LIMIS) which functions as a separate department in the Lithuanian Art Museum visited several museums in Czech Republic where they met with their colleagues specialising in digitisation and information technologies.

In seminars held in Brno and Prague LM IDC LIMIS was represented by administrator Giedrė Stankevičiūtė, the head of methodical department Dalia Sirgėdaitė, the head of information and public relations department Irena Endrijaitienė, the head of LIMIS and IT department Dr. Donatas Saulevičius, system engineer Ernestas Adomaitis, data classification specialist Agnė Rymkevičiūtė, museum specialist Irmantė Rabačiauskaitė and translator Agnė Pulokaitė.

On September 21 the seminar the Digitisation of Museum Objects, and the Compilation of Classifications and Thesauruses in Lithuanian and Czechish Museums was held in Methodological Centre for Information Technologies in Museology (hereafter CITeM) in Brno. Established in Moravian museum in 2004 the centre functions as a methodological body systematically solving IT problems in Czech museums and galleries. During the seminar the digital documentation methodist Mgr. David Cigánek introduced the project National Authority Files, training manager Rndr. Marie Kocinová presented the audience with the DEMUS system (Dokumentace a evidence muzejnich sbirek) used by most Czech museums, whereas the head of CITeM Rndr. Jarmila Podolníková focused on the Registry of the Fine-Art Collections, the prospective Integral Museum Collections Management System I3S (Integrovaný systém správy sbírek) as well as public access to museum collections.

LM IDC LIMIS administrator Giedrė Stankevičiūtė introduced Czech colleagues with the digitisation policy in Lithuanian museums; she also presented the structure of LM IDC LIMIS and what particular functions it carries out. The head of LIMIS and IT department Dr. Donatas Saulevičius delivered his presentation on the concept of future LIMIS system. During the meeting a myriad of issues were discussed ranging from digitisation of museum objects, creating public access pages, compilation of classifications, training programs for museum specialist, etc.

Presentations:

Giedrė Stankevičiūtė, LM ISC LIMIS Administrator
Digitisation in Lithuanian museums and LM IDC LIMIS

Dr. Donatas Saulevičius, Head of LIMIS and IT department of LM ISC LIMIS
Lithuanian Integral Museum Information System (LIMIS). The Concept and Specification

Davidas Cigánekas, CITeM digital documentation methodist
National Authority Files. Building the A-M-L Interoperability in the Czech Republic

On September 22 LM IDC LIMIS delegation held a meeting with the digitisation specialists from National Technical Museum in Prague. The head of IT and digitisation department Walter Schorge shared with seminar participants the wealth of experience that the Technical Museum has in the field of museum objects digitisation as well as presented the locally used database. Our specialists had a wonderful opportunity to visit their digitisation studio where museum specialists presented the digitising equipment, i.e. scanners, photo cameras, lightning gadgets.

The same day our group visited Jewish Museum; their specialists welcomed us in their digitisation studio and shared their experience in digitisation. The digitisation specialist of photoarchive Martin Jelinek presented the databases that are sporadically used in the museum and dwelt upon the future plans to integrate them into one common system accessible through an open-source tool Collective Access. The application of this particular tool in the Jewish Museum was more thoroughly discussed by the head of the holocaust department Michal Frankl. The museum specialists expressed their great interest in digitisation practice in Lithuania along with virtual exhibitions and electronic publications by the Lithuanian Art Museum.

On September 23 the private company “AiP Beroun” located in the National Library in Prague hosted another meeting. Regarded as particularly competent in the sphere of manuscript digitisation, the company was a technical coordinator of the international project ENRICH (“European Networking Resources and Information concerning Cultural Heritage”) which is, indeed, the reason why it is well-known among Lithuanian memory institutions. The head of digitisation studio Stepan Černohorsky presented LM IDC LIMIS specialists with the technical opportunities of book scanner CRUSE along with other scanners designed to scan rare prints and manuscripts; he also shared company’s invaluable experience in digitising large format prints. The practical part was followed by a discussion where the meeting participants shared their knowledge about digital image processing, storage, descriptions and public access. The company takes part in various projects, for example, they designed a website for a public access to the collections of the Czech Museum of Fine Arts.

During the work trip LM IDC LIMIS delegation visited different departments of the National Museum and had a meeting with ATHENA project coordinators for Czech museums Jakub Hauser and Kateřina Musílková. We discussed the common problems that Lithuanian and Czech museums have, namely the ways to motivate museums to make their collections public and take part in international projects, and the possible ways to solve them. On our way to Czech Republic we visited Warsaw Royal Palace whereas our journey back was relieved by a memorable visit to Czech Museum of Silver in Kutna Horá.

LM IDC LIMIS specialists together with their colleagues who attended the seminars in Brno and Prague agreed upon cooperating in future and sharing useful experience gained in the field of digitisation.

Giedrė Stankevičiūtė, Lithuanian Museums’ Centre for Information, Digitisation and LIMIS

Photos by Irena Endrijaitienė and Dalia Sirgedaitė