Results of the Enumerate survey of digital content in cultural institutions 2014
The National Library of Iceland – University Library has compiled the results of Enumerate, a European survey on the digital collection of cultural institutions. In recent years, the library has focused on increasing access to its materials through digital media. It has set a policy on digital reproduction and preservation of digital data ( http://landsbokasafn.is/uploads/stefnaskrar/stafraen_endurgerd_stefna_2011.pdf ), with the goal of allowing users to access the library's materials anywhere and at any time. The Enumerate survey is an attempt to assess how cultural institutions are managing to disseminate and preserve digital materials, the amount of which is increasing every day. The survey was conducted in late 2013 and was sent to thousands of institutions in Europe, of which over 100 Icelandic institutions received an invitation to participate. The results were available in spring 2014 and are available on the Enumerate website ( http://enumerate.eu/ ). The results of the survey confirm that Icelandic cultural institutions are increasingly using digital media to make their collections more accessible to the public. The majority of respondents, or 71% of the Icelandic institutions that participated, said that they have digital collections, compared to 87% of European institutions. The Icelandic museums that are working on digital reproduction of collections say that they have completed the digital reproduction of 23% of their collections and that 52% remains. Comparable figures for Europe as a whole are 17% and 48% (note that these are not weighted averages). The report published here summarizes the results and specifically examines the situation in Iceland. Digital Culture is the first report in a new series of reports by the National Library of Iceland – University Library.
The second round of the survey has already begun. Icelandic cultural institutions are invited to participate on the Enumerate website ( http://enumerate.eu/ ).