Project Profile: ReVerDi
Real Versus Digital: Sustainability optimization for cultural heritage preservation in national libraries
Who?
| Principal Investigators: | Uta Pottgiesser, TUDelft, Netherlands |
| Partners: | Jan Bieser, BFH, Switzerland Jonathan Chenoweth, UOS, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Foekje Boersma, KB, Netherlands Hansueli Locher, NB, Switzerland Marco Martens, KB, Netherlands Matthias Nepfer, NB, Switzerland Maureen Pennock, BL, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Oliver Sievi, NB, Switzerland Jeffrey Love, TUDelft, Netherlands Richard Murphy, UOS, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland James Suckling, UOS, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Melanie Noser, Digitalimpact, Switzerland |
| Sponsors: |
What?
| Full Project Title: | Real Versus Digital: Sustainability optimization for cultural heritage preservation in national libraries |
| Full Call Title: | CCH2023: CCH2023- Climate and Cultural Heritage |
| Website: |
Why?
| Project Objective: | "National libraries are the guardians of a country's national cultural heritage. They collect, preserve and make available a country's history to all of its citizens and open a window on that country to people all over the world."(IFLA, n.d., p.1). National libraries have been running projects to digitize their collections for years. Due to rising energy use and cost of digital infrastructures, there is increasing pressure on libraries to reduce their energy use and emissions whilst ensuring maximum usability and accessibility. From a climate perspective, avoiding parallel operation of physical and digital infrastructures seems advisable. However, neither a physical-only nor digital-only scenario is feasible because the demand for digital media is increasing, while physical media must be kept due to legal, academic and cultural requirements. It is thus necessary to find an optimal mix of infrastructures that is economically viable, meets legal, academic and cultural requirements, simplifies user access, minimizes energy use and emissions. The ReVerDi project applies the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment approach to assess these infrastructures from an environmental, social-cultural and economic perspective. It thereby provides the scientific basis required for national libraries and other GLAM institutions to create future-proof infrastructures. The consortium consists of three research groups and three national libraries from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Country teams consisting of a research group and a library are responsible for project implementation in the respective country, while each research group is responsible for a transnational focus topic (environmental, social-cultural, economic). The three research groups have complementary backgrounds (natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities) and expertise (digital technologies, LCA, cultural heritage), which provide a strong foundation. |
| Call Objective: | This Call aims to support transdisciplinary and convergent research approaches on cultural heritage and climate change, to foster collaboration among the research community across several regions, and to contribute to knowledge advances and policy change at the global level. Applicants are invited to submit research proposals that address at least one of the three call themes: 1. The Impact of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage; 2. Cultural Heritage as a Resource for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation; 3. Sustainable Solutions for Heritage. |
Where?
| Regions: | |
| Countries: |
When?
| Duration: | 36 months |
| Call Date: | 26 April 2023 |
| Project Award Date: |
