Istituzioni culturali e riuso del patrimonio culturale digitale: buone pratiche a livello internazionale

Abstract

Sharing digital content is not just a technological challenge, it is an opportunity and a vision. This article presents a selection of cases of cultural institutions (libraries, museums and art galleries) that have made their collections available for reuse, reporting internal debates, challenges, proposed solutions. The impact generated by open data can be very large, stimulating the creativity of digital start-ups and citizens of all ages, the reuse of collections through APIs that allow digital collections to be incorporated into visualization and machine learning platforms, exposure on external platforms such as Wikimedia Commons, CC Search, Europeana etc. Cultural institutions are invited to analyze the case studies presented, identify their advantages, build their own argument and identify solutions to minimize the perceived risks in opening their data, compatibly with what is permitted by national legislation. Although slow, change is certainly possible and is an integral part of the digital transition process in which all cultural institutions are taking part.