Access to Cultural Information. MICHAEL Project based on MINERVA results
Chairman: Rossella Caffo, Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali

The MICHAEL project (Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe), and its enlargement MICHAELplus, is creating a European online service. The MICHAEL service enables a wide range of users to search, browse and enjoy the European digital cultural heritage from a single multilingual access point. Its comprehensive, cross-domain catalogue of European digital cultural and scientific collections represents the collections registry for Europeana, the European Digital Library.

The MICHAEL European service is based upon the automatic harvesting of data from a network of national repositories, which are individually accessible through national websites.

MICHAEL is a deployment project funded by the EC eTEN programme and is based on the results of the MINERVA project in the field of interoperability and inventories of digital cultural content. MINERVA activities are continuing through the current MINERVAeC project.

Speakers include:

• Rossella Caffo (Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, Italy) and Christophe Dessaux (Ministère de la culture et de la communication, France): "MINERVA and MICHAEL fostering access to digital cultural and scientific heritage: the prospects for the future" [Caffo presentation .ppt 800 kb] - [Dessaux presentation .ppt 4MB ]
• Monika Hagedorn-Saupe (Institut für Museumsforschung. Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Germany) and Maria Teresa Natale (MINERVA project, Italy): "Users and uses: MINERVAeC study, MICHAEL experience" [.ppt 1 mb]
• Kate Fernie (Museums, Libraries and Archive Council, UK) and Giuliana De Francesco (Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, Italy): "MICHAEL service" [.ppt 16 mb]