Shared Heritage : a digital unification project

Abstract

Since 2009, the National Library of France (BnF) carry out a shared digitization policy with foreign partner libraries. These digitization programs have been brought together since 2017 in the same digital collection: "Shared Heritage"; it proposes a set of websites presenting the same graphic identity and the same organizational principle. This project pursues three main objectives: to safeguard, collect and share a dispersed heritage (digital reunification) while making dialogue between the collections of foreign origin of the establishment with those of his counterparts; develop national and international digital and scientific partnerships; to involve research communities in the digital valorization and mediation of this heritage.

IFLA has released in 2019 its guidelines for setting up a digital unification project. These provide a checklist, and recommendations, for libraries in the planning, delivery, and finalisation of projects to provide digital access to collections across distance and borders.