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Cultural Heritage Project

The Cultural Heritage Project, Phase 2

The Cultural Heritage Project, Phase 2 is an extension of a national project, completed in 2003, which involved local libraries, museums and archives in the digitisation and online publication of their local studies materials. The results are published on the Internet, using the project website at www.askaboutireland.ie.

The first phase of the project concentrated on a single theme, the Big House and Landed Estates. As a result of the success of Phase I, funding has been made available from the Information Society Fund to develop the project. Phase II aims to create content of interest to a wide range of users, and to make this content as accessible as possible. The project team is liaising with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to ensure that the website will be tailored to complement the schools curriculum in a number of subjects. The website will also be compliant with W3C WCAG V1 access guidelines, level A, which endeavor to provide maximum accessibility for visually impaired users.

7 themes have been selected for the project chosen:

  • Flora and Fauna
  • Sport
  • Vernacular Architecture
  • Irish Language and Legends
  • Irish Authors
  • Transport
  • Snapshot of 1904/2004 illustrated with digitized newspapers (Dublin City Public Libraries are developing this theme)

Themes

The material selected by the local libraries, museums and archives follow the above themes under which local material can be combined and presented in a national context. The material is aimed at the general public, with a particular emphasis in some parts of the project on the second level (Junior Certificate) student. Cultural institutions will contribute to each theme, showcasing material from their own collections and contributing to a general collection of online knowledge.

The material selected and digitised by the project will be presented online as part of the AskAboutIreland web site.

In addition to the local and national material selected by participating organizations, each theme is given a single integrated presentation, featuring highlights and an introduction written by a subject expert. The 'themed features' have proven to be one of the most popular aspects of the AskAboutIreland site.

Games Zone

In order to make the website more interactive a games zone is being developed by the Digital Media Centre. This will consist of a variety of games, based on the material on the website, aimed for the moment at Junior Certificate level students.

Digitisation in Depth

The National Museum of Ireland is participating in this aspect of the project which will feature the three-dimensional digitization of six artefacts from the National Museum collection, with accompanying description.

The project is also investigating and range of issues in the areas of interoperability (cross-searching and other common services on the websites), newspaper digitization, and copyright.

Further information is available from Eugene Farrelly (efarrell@librarycouncil.ie) or Joan Ward (jward@librarycouncil.ie) at An Chomhairle or by visiting www.askaboutireland.ie.