EUROPEAN DIGITAL TREASURES 1 3

Youths participating in the summer camp held in Budapest within the European Digital Treasures project.

The year 2022 marked the end of the European Digital Treasures: Management of Centenary Archives in the 21st Century.

The National Archives of Malta has been participating in this project since its inception in late 2018. The project, co funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, aimed at bringing joint European heritage, and especially its digital versions, major visibility, outreach and use.

European archives are fundamental primary sources for discovering and reinforcing shared European culture and history. In this regard, the project addressed the challenges of the digital society, related to the management and transmission of European historical and documentary heritage.

The project consortium is comprised of seven partners from seven countries uniting a multi-stakeholder team. Each partner has specific qualifications that together form an effective consortium.

· Spanish State Archives (project lead);

· National Archives of Hungary; National Archives of Malta; National Archives of Norway; National Archives of Portugal;

· ICARUS – International Centre for Archival Research;

· Munster Technological University (Ireland).

Develop new business models for European archives in the 21st century seeking to unlock the profitability and economic sustainability of digitised cultural heritage .

· Amplify the visibility of national archives in the public, underlining the importance of protecting European heritage.

Reach out to new audiences (Generation Z and Silver Generation) encouraging the use of digital products that unlock the hidden treasures of joint heritage kept in archives.

· Support transnational mobility of managers, historians, experts, graphical and industrial designers as well as archivists to activate cross-sectoral opportunities.

42 European archival institutions have been contacted to gather data on the existing business models applied in each European country by the archives.

37 good practices and new trends in the management of cultural institutions have been identified.

450 persons (online and in person) and 12 professional speakers from seven EU countries participated in the “Innovation on new digital exponential technologies towards the generation of Business Models” workshop.

26 new managerial actions towards the generation of Business Models has been tested in the five National Archives partners of EDT, reaching a great deal of professionals and users.

121 persons participated from a network of over 160 archives and scientific institutions in “New Business & Conceptual Models” workshop, coordinated by ICARUS in the framework of its #28th ICARUS convention in Paris.

12 graphic and industrial designers from six different countries developed 50 merchandising product designs based on archival records.

21 professionals from the archival world and six experts from the video game sector gathered in the Archives and Videogames AltspaceVR meeting.

70 archivists have worked on the pre-selection of 320 documents for the three planned exhibitions and on the identification, selection and contextualization of the 120 documents that were finally selected.

3 Transmedia Exhibitions were developed. 140 documents from 46 archival organizations from 12 countries led to exhibitions about The Construction of Europe, Exiles, Migratory Flows and Solidarity and European Discoveries.

90,000 persons visited the 18 exhibitions in six different countries.

35 teachers from 5 countries have tested the three modules making the Archival literacy Online Course developed by the project. 12 specialists in archives and education have worked for its development alongside the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning IT of Munster University of Technology.

105 professionals from the archival and educational world were part of the webinar on the Literacy Online Course.

11 teenage students and six monitors participated a summer camp in 2019.

16 teenage students and seven monitors participated in “Young Digital Treasures” summer camp in July 2022.

889 archive clients, over 60 years of age, from eight European countries (Malta, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Germany, Switzerland and Spain) participated in a survey about their experience and expectations.

169 persons, over 60 years of age, from 15 countries participated in crowd-sourcing activities, assisting in the development of handwritten text reading technology.

7 film directors, four experts on design thinking and storytelling (from the comic and documentary world) and three archival professionals participated in an encounter in MTU about the use of archives in audio-visual productions.

7 short documentaries of “Treasures in Archives” based on archival documents were produced.