Towards a National Collection: Metadata Aggregation of Digital Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The Preserving and promoting cultural values are essential for the sustainable development of the country, which is a complex task. In the past few decades communities have embraced digital technologies to gather, record, and organize their collection in a systematic way to enhance its discoverability which empowers diverse audiences worldwide. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums (GLAMs), cultural organizations, and memory institutions go beyond the physical display and engaged in transforming the online exploration of cultural artifacts and historical archives by harnessing innovative technologies. Cultural content in digitized form is an important resource and providing online access to these resources enhances their visibility, which can in turn contribute to the economic growth of the country. The potential of digital technology can also be utilized for bringing multiple cultural heritage collections together for better visualization and accessibility. However, standards-based and compatible technologies for the digitization process are essential for their uniformity and interoperability so that they can eliminate the challenges associated with discoverability and usage of resources by potential audiences. Cultural heritage aggregators are platforms that can address the difficulties of discoverability in cultural heritage resources by enabling search across multiple cultural heritage collections and improving access to the contents. This study gives an overview of the various Indian initiatives to safeguard the cultural heritage assets of the country, and its major digital initiatives in this direction, and highlights the need for an Indian aggregator platform for a national collection of cultural heritage.