The National Digital Library project is the Ministry of Education and Culture's way to improve the availability and usability of the electronic materials of libraries, archives and museums and to develop a long-term preservation solution for the materials.
Simultaneously, the National Digital Library project is a part of the development of national electronic services and infrastructures. It is one of the public administration projects defined in the Ubiquitous Information Society action plan implementing the Government Resolution on the Objectives of the National Information Society Policy 2007-2011.
The project aims to ensure that the information of our culture, heritage and history is safely stored, easily found and actively used. This will benefit learning and research and offer new possibilities for the creative industries and artists.
One target is also to improve participating organisation's productivity. The joint solution reduces the overlapping costs of digitisation, management and distribution of electronic materials, releasing resources for other tasks and consequently making the use of public funds more effective. At the same time, the impact benefits gained from the creation and maintenance of library, archive and museum information resources will multiply as the materials form a common, easy-to-use national entity.
The Ministry of Education and Culture has appointed both a monitoring group and a steering group for the National Digital Library project. Availability and long-term preservation sections and a technical expert group work under the steering group. In all, at present 35 organisations are participating: ministries, national institutions in charge of preserving cultural heritage, scientific and public libraries, archives, museums and representatives from other central interest groups.
Structure of the project organisation
The participating individuals are listed in connection with the project in the State project register: http://www.hare.vn.fi/mKokoonpanonSelailu.asp?h_iID=14477&tVNo=6&sTyp=Selaus (in Finnish)