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The Humanities Advanced
Technology and Information Institute was commissioned by the Heritage
Lottery Fund to carry out a study on information technology in
the heritage sector. This took place between August 1997 and February
1998.
The National Heritage Act 1997 enabled the Heritage Lottery Fund
to consider a wide range of new types of projects which had hitherto
been ineligible for Lottery funding. This presents many new opportunities
for using information technology in heritage projects. This is
the area that was investigated by the study, explained in more
detail in the following brief.
Brief
for research study
Purpose
of study
1. To assist in developing a policy framework and funding guidelines
to support the Heritage Lottery Fund's wider powers under new
legislation to fund projects involving:
* compilation and dissemination of information about the heritage
* encourage study, understanding and enjoyment of the heritage
These new purposes, taken with HLF's established role in funding
conservation of the heritage, imply that information technology
will play will play a much greater part in future HLF grant activity.
HLF wishes to identify the most effective contributions it can
make in this field.
2. The new legislation widens the range of HLF's potential projects
and applicants. There will be no new lottery funding to meet these
demands, and capital projects involving the direct conservation
of the heritage will remain a priority. Resources for information
technology projects will be finite, and an important objective
of the study will be to identify and recommend priorities in the
short and medium term.
3. These priorities should take account of government policy
on, and parallel developments in the use of information technology,
for example in the fields of current information and education,
to identify opportunities for HLF to complement other initiatives
and avoid duplication.
Specific objectives
4. To review (by means of a literature survey and targeted interviews)
the established and developing uses of IT in the sectors covered
by the HLF:
i Built heritage a) Survey and Record b) Archaeology
ii Countryside and Nature Conservation a) Survey and Record b)
Biological & Natural Records
iii Objects (including preserved ships etc.) and Collections (museums,
archives, special library collections)
5. To examine the possible future applications and issues raised
for the above by:
i Databases, including image databases
ii Interactive on-site and on-line systems
iii Websites
6. To identify requirements for standards (principals for selection
rather than particular standards), kinds of applications to be
supported (eg database development, interactive systems, software
development, hardware) and the issues raised by copyright and
intellectual property rights.
7. To examine the issues related to the inclusion of information
technology training and skills-development with bids to the Heritage
Lottery Fund.
8. To examine dissemination issues and problems associated with
improving access and making certain that technology-based projects
succeed in reaching a wider user-base and not just the traditionally
IT literate communities.
9. To identify policy options, and recommend priorities across
the range of areas, in the short (eg first two years) and medium
term.
10. To draw up recommended criteria, and guidelines for the material
to be submitted by applicants, which are:
* comprehensible to non-IT specialists among applicants, HLF staff
and trustees
* sufficiently robust about priorities to facilitate efficient
and economic assessments by HLF
11. To define assessment tests for IT projects, including assessment
of commercial viability, and appraisal of economic, cultural and
social "market" for projects.
12. To review HLF options and resource implications for inviting/assessing
applications for IT projects, including viability of establishing
a special programme for IT in the heritage sector.
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