Enclos Saint-Césaire – Impasse des Mourges13200 Arles FranceTel. +33 (0)4-9049-9989info@ccl-fr.orgwww.ccl-fr.org

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE“New Horizons in ICT for Women”

12.06.2012, Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce

Digital Libraries : a cultural ICT tool

The example of« E-corpus », digital library developped by the CCL

Centre de Conservation du Livre

Access to collections and documents is an essential element in the enhancement of written and iconographic heritage. Indeed, it is not possible to preserve document without allowing citizens to access them.

Main Objective

The notion of "written heritage" refers to both a material dimension impossible to quantify (millions of very diverse objects that have in common to be support for writing), very old traditions and professional uses (those of archives, libraries and the conservation), a set of institutions (places of conservations and documentary collections management), and a major challenge for the world cultural politics of today and tomorrow

But the written heritage is not only a complex idea, synthesis of the concrete and intangible, of past, present and future is also a concept in full renewal, transforming itself with the social and economic contemporary changes.

The very idea of "written heritage" contains this bet which could be one of the greatest challenges of our time: the project of transforming this gigantic monument of memory on a daily space of practice of knowledge, dialogue of cultures and new thinking.

The Internet and digitalisation tools allow this immense treasure of written culture to change himself into a living and coherent corpus of document accessible to all.

The new possibilities gaven by ICT tools allow people to find easily, in few steps, the document they are searching the heritage and culture available in several clic!

The ICT: a solution for sharing this heritage

In 2010, the CCL launched its collective and patrimonial digital library: e-corpus www.e-corpus.org

E-corpus indicates, identifies, disseminates and provides access to tens of thousands of objects and documents belonging mainly to the writing and linguistic heritage (manuscripts, archives, books, newspapers), as well as iconographical heritage and other cultural objects (photographs, prints, sound recordings, videos, artwork).

A concrete example: e-corpus

e-corpus is a collective digital library that catalogs and disseminates numerous documents: manuscripts, archives, books, journals, prints, audio recordings, video, etc.

The platform presents cultural diversity worldwide and specifically in the Euro-Mediterranean region. e-corpus proposes a variety of themes and a large quantity of digital documents presented by numerous organizations and countries.

Based on cutting edge technologies, e-corpus offers a simple and direct public access to a rich collection of resources.

2 000 000 document corresponding to approximately 100 000 notices are available

180 000 visits since the creation of the platform.

357 952 researches made by the Internet users

An average of 490 visitors per day in 2011

Principal figures :

Today, e-corpus includes more than 250 institutions from 26 countries contributors.

This platform allows to move to a collaborative form of publication in which any collection can be enhanced by a dedicated website with a web address different from the database e-corpus.

e-corpus allow the possibility to create easily digital libraries involving several institutions and several collections around the same subject, as the digital library on the history of photographic techniques: Camera Obscura (www.camera-obscura.org)

Sites of organizations (e.g. Libraries) convinced of the advantages of a local cooperation between institutions

Virtual Collections grouping documents of common interest around the same topic.

These thematic platforms promote easy access for users interested in a specific subject

Thematic digital libraries

www.camera-obscura.comhttp://data.manumed.org

http://digital-library.alquds-manuscripts.org/

Example of thematic digital libraries

How to use the e-corpus digital library

First, go to: www.e-corpus.org

Women

Example of thematic digital library

Thank You