Acronym: E-archive

Contract Number: ESTLATRUS/2.2./ELRI-167/2011/21

Beneficiary: Culture Information Systems Centre

Beneficiary Address: Culture Information Systems Centre

Country: Latvia

Region: Riga City

Project Location: Riga City, Latgale Region, South Estonia, St. Petersburg City

Start Date: 01.04.2012

Project Duration: 24 months

Grant Amount: 1.096.372,26 €

Percentage Of Total Eligible Action Costs: 90%

Summary: There are number of state archives in Estonia, Latvia and Russia, that are more or less developed from electronic point of view. These archives store valuable information related to the common history, culture and population of the citizens of all three countries, especially in the cross border area. Still mainly only archivists have access to the depositories that are kept in paper and this fact makes the access for the most of the people very restricted. Cross border E-archive will highlight significant information and materials related to Estonia, Latvia and Russia and will form new collections based on state archives with unlimited access to all interested parties. Under its web-platform a semi-professional social network will be created to unite historians, archivists, librarians, educators and other people interested in cross border cultural, historical, educational, personal or any other professional contacts. That will help to create new cross border links and also to discover and strengthen the existing ones. Besides relevant policy documents in all there countries stress the necessity to digitalize the heritage preserved in the archives. Project idea falls with this and also the identified overall objective: to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Estonia, Latvia and Russia cross border area archives and to provide access to this heritage for the citizens of the area. That will be reached by realizing the project specific objective: to create a digital environment for descriptions and data of archival materials in Estonia, Latvia and Russia border area archives. Beneficiaries (3 million inhabitants and 800 professionals of the Estonia, Latvia and Russia border area) and target groups (30 archive institutions in the Estonia, Latvia and Russia; 30 000 researchers and students in cross border area) will have unlimited access to the developed digital platform in the native and English languages. Activities in all countries in the border area like research, digitalization and development of the platform will lead to achievement of the objectives. As a result 1 catalogue/metadata description will be developed, 10000 archive documents will be digitized and 1 common standardized list for all involved countries will provide the main result -1 universally accessible and fully searchable platform. Activities will be implemented by partners from border area archives and other relevant institutions (NGOs and public bodies). Project will involve scientific research in archive collections in order to point out most valuable content for the society in all three countries. Users will retrieve information by browsing themes or time periods, locations or by entering a specific query. Through this virtual archive users at all levels and geographic locations will be able to make connections between their personal lives, histories and shared cultural heritage.

Project homepage: www.earchive-estlatrus.eu/

Measure name: Preservation and promotion of cultural and historical heritage and support of local traditional skills

Measure: 2.2

Involved partners:

1. Culture Information Systems Centre, 53-2 Terbatas Street, Riga LV-1011
2. Ideju Forums, Smilšu street 3, Riga
3. The National Archives of Latvia (incl. it, Skunu street 11, Riga, LV-1050
4. The National Archives of Estonia, J. Liivi 4 Tartu Estonia
5. Saint-Petersburg Information and Analytical Centre, 59, Chernyakhovskogo st., St. Petersburg, 191040, Russia

Additional information:

1. Portfolio_167.pdf (pdf) 210.66 KB
2. 2014_06 Newsletter Oct 2013 Jan 2014.pdf (pdf) 1.37 MB
3. 2014_07 Newsletter Feb June 2014.pdf (pdf) 2.78 MB
4. Result Sheet (pdf) 1018.18 KB