The process of digitising museum collections is often hampered by financial difficulties, severe legal uncertainties and an inadequate skills base, according to a new report by NEMO, the Network of European Museum Organisations.
While the Covid crisis has drawn attention to the importance of digital collections, the legal and technological framework that allows museums to fully realise their digital opportunities is inadequate, and the resources available to them are too limited.
NEMO, which represents the museum community of the member states of the Council of Europe, is calling for new policy goals to guide European decision-making on investment in the museums sector, especially regarding Intellectual Property Rights that “must allow for museums to be fully visible on the internet, and provide the best possible access to their collections online.”
Museums should be recognised in law as “learning institutions in service of society”, they say, and therefore be entitled to the same limitations to copyright that benefit “traditional” educational institutions.