Although libraries, archives and museums in recent years are extremely interesting in the light of the new IT environment, it can be stated that Montenegro is just beginning to see cultural heritage as a significant factor in the development of society, preserving old and creating new values, which will be available to all interested users. Democratization of culture is a strategic commitment of all countries that respect the basic principles of human rights and freedoms, with equal access to information, cultural goods and nurturing cultural differences.

Libraries, archives and museums, in the new social and economic context, have a great chance to open their funds wide and to use modern information and communication technologies in the best possible way to achieve a common mission: to be cultural heritage keepers, but also to serve knowledge, education and encouraging overall social and economic progress.

In order to improve the values of cultural heritage in Montenegro, it is necessary to undertake new research, studies, protection, preservation and presentation. Digital technologies provide great opportunities to improve access to cultural heritage, its conservation and protection, and also provide great opportunities to connect cultural institutions for the implementation of joint projects, on the basis of which it would be much easier to obtain funding.

In that sense, it is necessary to develop and set up norms in the procedures of procurement, storage and use of materials of heritage institutions. "Thanks to information technology, standardization is now spreading, it is being accepted worldwide and our library, archival and museological community must act accordingly and follow". The construction of national information systems, based on communication, also requires standardized approaches in the processing of library, archive and museum materials.

Therefore, cultural institutions in Montenegro should focus their activities on improving the overall business, while respecting international standards and professional rules, using all the advantages of modern information technology, so as not to leave many relevant and valuable sources inaccessible and unknown to the public.

 

Status of Libraries, Archives and Museums

 

Libraries, archives and museums are institutions in which cultural heritage is stored, which includes objects and documents of special historical and cultural significance. Cultural heritage, although tied to the territory of one state, is equally part of the culture of other peoples. Therefore, the national cultural heritage is increasingly viewed globally, civilizationally, as an integral part of the cultural heritage of Europe and the world.

"Cultural heritage, which is divided into tangible and intangible, is an expression of beliefs, aspirations, values, achievements and experiences of people in a particular territory and therefore it represents a source of knowledge about a particular human community and beyond.". Until recently, libraries, archives and museums collected materials, literary works, documents, objects, works of art and everything that was in material form a product of spiritual creation. In this context, all three types of institutions clearly delineated their activities. Cultural heritage was not considered integral, as a national resource of first-class importance. The specificity of the funds housed in libraries, archives and museums conditioned their position in society. Library and archive collections are similar in character (manuscripts and printed publications), while museum material is more diverse and, therefore, much more complex to apply a standard description. When processing museum material, the content of the material is not of crucial importance for the processor and user, as is the case with library and archive material. Therefore, a description is still widely used to describe museum objects.

However, information technology has weakened differences among cultural institutions, insisting that libraries, archives and museums collect the same things – “collect documents”. What, further, characterizes the modern approach to cultural heritage is the issue of accessibility, i.e. in the center of events is the user – “consumer of information”. This, especially in libraries and archives, realizes the principle of democracy, which provides equal access to information for all users, regardless of race, religion, gender or nation.

Although traditional information sources are “technologically independent”, today their presentation and valorization are almost unthinkable without the use of computer technologies. If we add to this that information users are becoming more discerning, aware of their rights and needs, then the transformation of cultural institutions in Montenegro should be based on more intensive opening and interconnection.

When it comes to library activity, its normative regulation did not follow the social, political and economic changes in Montenegro, which is reflected in the lack of designed and organized professional education of library and information professionals, user education and providing technological infrastructure.

Therefore, the inclusion of Montenegrin libraries in European and world integration processes is being realized slowly for three reasons: the existing legal framework, insufficiently trained staff and poor technical equipment of libraries.

Here we will mention European guidelines for the development of library activities, which highlighted four key areas:

1. Democracy and civil society imply unhindered access to all cultures and knowledge, development of services for the needs of special social categories, and development of e-society (e-government, e-health, e-commerce and e-education);

2. lifelong learning - public institutions (libraries, archives, museums) become centers of non-formal education, which offer content, education and support to every citizen in one place;

3. economic and social development: assistance in the fight against information illiteracy and inequality, free access to the Internet and information, in order to develop a knowledge-based society as the greatest resource;

4. cultural diversity: fostering a sense of local community in a globalized world, creating digital and analogue content in local libraries, archives and museums, and affirming ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity through the creation of digital content that will be accessible to everyone.

Opportunities for Cooperation

Libraries, archives and museums in Montenegro, as cultural institutions of first-class importance, are slowly adapting their traditional activities to the new requirements of modern society. Their unique mission is the starting point of various forms of cooperation, which will enable:

- educating citizens in order to create an objective image of themselves, their origins and traditions, and thus their place among European nations;

- developing awareness of the importance and preservation of cultural heritage;

- improving the cultural offer in order to integrate into the wider domestic and world cultural offer and cultural exchange;

- introducing Europe and the world to the Montenegrin cultural heritage;

- developing cooperation with cultural, scientific and educational institutions in the region and beyond;

- inclusion of user groups with special needs and reduction of inequalities;

- development of cultural tourism;

- encouraging learning and research.

The diversity of the media on which the documentary heritage is written and the increased demands for access to information show the need for cooperation of IT experts with librarians, archivists and curators. With the increasing use of computer technology, the differences between cultural heritage institutions are narrowing, and at the same time a useful environment for research work is being created. However, their cooperation, as a "strategy of the XXI century “, is a set of thoughtful activities that require educated staff in terms of cultural heritage management. On that path, the library activity in Montenegro went the furthest, which, as elsewhere in the world, did best in the newly created digital world. The influence of information technologies and the role of the modern librarian have given new values to the business of libraries and created the possibility of their networking with other libraries, but also with related cultural institutions. Such action aims to provide access to the material no matter where it is located, and is based on active and equal participation, with the sharing of knowledge, information and resources. Online access to documents and collections erases the interest of users in whose possession the requested resources are located, while "the difference between these seemingly different institutions will be as unimportant and unnecessary as they were three hundred or more years ago.

 

Education

Employees of cultural heritage institutions are facing great challenges due to the new cultural needs of users who want to get the necessary information in a faster, simpler and better way. The new changes require the awareness that “by actively approaching the acquisition of knowledge and continuous evaluation of acquired knowledge throughout life, society gets competent individuals who, by applying the acquired knowledge and skills, have a direct impact on the environment in which they live and its progress.“  Therefore, the educational system of each country has a significant role in the development of cultural activities and moulding of professional staff. In Montenegro, there are no opportunities for educating professionals in cultural activities and this apply to any level of education. This shortcoming is inadequately compensated through trainings following the programs for taking professional exams in state cultural institutions and through acquiring advanced (professional) titles, while most employees in culture acquire their first knowledge about cultural activities upon applying for taking these exams.

The lack of formal education greatly affects the overall functioning of cultural institutions in Montenegro. In that situation, continuing education, professional and personal, is of great importance. “While the goal of continuing (lifelong) education is to preserve professional competence, the goal of continuing personal education is related to personal interests outside the workplace. It is clear that most of lifelong learning is dedicated to continuous professional and personal education, and therefore society as a whole must be interested in the results of that process, because they directly affect the development of the entire cultural environment.”  In accordance with the new demands of global development, modern librarians, archivists and curators are becoming information experts, with very complex tasks such as “recording, collecting, storing, organizing, searching and transmitting information, ideas and products of the spirit”.  

“Every librarian operates within a particular political, economic, social and cultural environment”  and it is necessary to meet the preconditions at the national level so that the education of employees in culture can be in line with existing needs. The plan should define the holders of educational activities and ways of financing. A good example of curriculum adaptation is found in the United States and the United Kingdom, where colleges adopt programs related to educating students to work in all information institutions, including archives, libraries, and museums. The goals of these programs (which could be applied in Montenegro as well) are: “Master a corpus of general expertise relevant to different types of libraries, archives, museums and other information centres; acquire skills to make appropriate use of information technology and be able to create value-added information products; be able to understand the interdisciplinary character of the information profession and the features of the global information environment in which information experts operate today; master the skills and methods of successful communication (in written, oral and electronic form); be able to work independently and / or as team members.”  

 

Conclusion

 

                                       “The only competitive advantage is the ability to learn and change”

 

                                                                                                                    Michael Porter

                                                                                                            

Institutions in the field of cultural heritage have far greater demands due to their role as institutions of memory, because they are in themselves a kind of information system, which stores and organizes existing knowledge and creates new ones. Libraries, museums and archives are at the intersection of culture and information sciences, because they deal with the organization of knowledge, so the application of information and communication technologies is much more demanding in these fields.

The most valuable asset of cultural institutions is precisely the content, not only physical artefacts or documents, but also new knowledge related to them. Therefore, it is logical for cultural institutions to try to take advantage of information and communication technologies in order to offer their content to users as efficiently as possible. The relevance of cultural heritage documents that cultural institutions preserve, protect and process goes beyond institutional divisions, so communication, cooperation and providing access to these resources are of particular importance.

The decisions that cultural institutions have to make include thinking about new technologies impact on the operations of these institutions and the best way to integrate them into the work process, i.e. finding out what institutional changes need to be made in order to optimally respond to new business challenges, who are the users, i.e. market, and whether there is potential for commercial use of existing cultural resources. It is important for cultural institutions to find a solution that will enable them to make their (virtual) services in the field of culture “sustainable”. The solution is not the same for large and small institutions, and given the large number of small institutions in the cultural sector (libraries, museums and archives) that do not have many resources, it is especially important to find a solution that will enable equal participation of small institutions in the information society.

Therefore, libraries, archives and museums need to build new connections with their environment and users, with other cultural institutions, as well as with the private sector. The goal of these new partnerships is cooperation on the creation of new services, digitalization, development of standards and organizational structures for integrated access and data exchange. Collaborative networks can be the basic structure for achieving these goals, through which even small institutions will be able to benefit and increase their knowledge related to the application of new technologies. Digital libraries of a smaller or larger scope are being built in the world, most often through projects of digitization of collections of old and rare materials, materials of native collections,

archives and other materials that are not subject to copyright. In their construction, it is not only important to carefully choose the material, but also the continuous creation of digital content that enables and encourages its creative use and linking.

Cooperation between libraries, archives and museums helps to achieve a unique public view of each country, thus encouraging the development of awareness of the specifics of others. For small countries such as Montenegro, the strategic definition of such an approach enables recognition and participation in the construction of world cultural heritage. Therefore, it is necessary to create new mutual partnerships, but also at the community level - with companies, tourism organizations, NGO sector, etc. Only in this way can cultural institutions, from the funds they possess, produce knowledge that will actively influence the life of the community and society as a whole.

By sharing knowledge and resources, they can effectively acquire new necessary knowledge in the field of digitalization, preservation and presentation of the cultural heritage of Montenegro.

Cultural heritage institutions, therefore, represent the characteristics of civilization, and their existence is not merely a testimony to the past. The documents and materials contained in them should primarily encourage thinking, new creation and the development of spiritual potentials in their environments. Today, culture is gaining an increasingly prominent role in building the identity of a social community, but also in its economic development. That is why it is necessary to transform cultural institutions in Montenegro as soon as possible, in order to adapt to changes in Montenegrin society and environment, because it is evident, despite some progress, that this area is still poorly linked with other social sectors.

 

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