Overview of the digitization policies in cultural memory institutions in Turkey

Abstract

The advances in information and communication technologies have permitted societies to produce, store, arrange and effectively benefit from information in different environments. These advances have necessitated both the use of new environments for the production of information and transfer of information produced in other environments into the new ones. Cultural memory institutions fulfill an important function in transmitting information reflecting cultural values of a society to the future generations and in enabling its effective use by transferring already existing information into new environments. Cultural memory institutions realize these functions on the basis of policies in which they define digitization processes. In this framework, this study deals with the policies developed by cultural memory institutions for digitization practices and analytic studies of the issue; and it investigates the situation in Turkey through document analyses within the scope of information and culture policies. The results of the study show that there are considerable differences in digitization practices between Turkey and other countries and that, in spite of the many projects on digitization, there are no policies in Turkey which define digitization processes on an institutional or national scale. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.