Democratization of digitization of cultural heritage – Different pasts may again have an equal say in the future

Abstract

Paper materials related to the past have been sequestered to shelves and mostly unused in our digital world. Documents lucky enough to get their digital copies circulate freely and thus create dominant information flow related to culture heritage. The decision on what is to be digitized is crucial and so far has been the privilege and burden of culture institutions. The poster presents activities on implementation of cheap and efficient digitization technologies, developed in the framework of H2020 RAED project, performed in Serbia during 2018. ScanTent device, docScan app and Trankribus program have been employed in digitization efforts performed by users and employees of University Library Belgrade and Novi Sad City Library aiming at broadening the scope of user involvement in digitization activities and decision making process regarding digitization of culture heritage. Numerous forgotten gems of culture heritage from Serbia have been uncovered from library shelves by users and thrown back into global culture arena via digitization&Internet. The experience presented in this poster put forth the strong case for praise of digital technologies as tools for democratization of digitization of culture heritage and empowerment of users to craft the flow of digital information related to printed and handwritten culture heritage.