PERSPECTIVES OF DIGITIZATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Digitization of cultural heritage has special place deriving from the significance of cultural heritage for national identity of each European country. European countries seek to regulate and direct the process of digitization of cultural heritage in order to achieve the most optimal results in this area. Special role in that process belongs to the Recommendation of the European Union (EU) on the digitization and online availability of cultural material and on digital protection, and the EU Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market. The implementation of that Recommendation and the whole process of digitization of cultural heritage was monitored by the EU Expert Group on Digitization and Digital Protection since 2007, and since 2017 by the Expert Group on Digitization of Cultural Heritage and Europeana. European countries have recognized great importance of digitization of cultural heritage and therefore are monitoring and directing activities in this area, especially since 2006 to the present. EU decisions and recommendations regulate the online accessibility of cultural heritage and its digital protection, aimed at harmonizing Member States' actions in the field of digitization. The future progress of digitization in the field of cultural heritage in the EU is largely linked to Europeana, as one of the world's largest digital cultural heritage sites. About three thousand institutions from European countries are exhibiting objects of digitized cultural heritage through their collections in Europeana.