European Standards Map

Denmark

EMII gratefully acknowledges the help of the following people in the Denmark:

Michael Lauenborg, Danish National Council of Museums
Kirsten Vittrup, Danish Art Index
Henrik Hansen, Central Cultural Historical Archive
Jorgen Christoffersen, Danish National Museum

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National Overview

There is not a published definition of museum in Denmark but the Museum Act contains the following:

"Through collection, registration, conservation, research and communication the museums shall:

• Work for the safeguarding of the Danish cultural heritage
• Illustrate cultural, natural and art history
• Expand the collections within their respective areas of responsibility
• Make the collections accessible to the public
• Make the collections available for research and communicate the results of such research"

Act on Museums, etc Ministry of Culture Order no. 584 of August 31, 1989

The body responsible for co-ordinating documentation in Denmark is the Danish National Council of Museums

Danish museums are not obliged to subscribe to ICOM Code of Professional Ethics.

The total number of museums in Denmark is estimated at 300 and all are considered public. It was not possible to estimate the total collections size.

Categories of Public Museums

Employment

There are an estimated 3,500 people in full time (more than 35 hours per week) employment , 0 in part-time paid employment and an estimated 2,000 working on a voluntary basis.

Information Management

Percentage of cultural heritage held in Museums that is:

An estimated 150 museums use computers for documentation but it was not possible to estimate the percentage of cultural heritage that is documented to a basic standard or catalogued in detail. National Guidelines are avialable: 'Danish Museum Documentation Standards' on the web site of The National Council of Museums (in Danish).

Images and Multimedia

Approximately 20 museums have published CD-ROMS and around 30 have interactive gallery systems. The partner was not able to quantify the percentage of museums with digital images of all or part of their collections and for what purposes images have have been produced.

Museums and the Internet

It is estimated that around 200 museums have Internet access for Web browsing and email. Around 200 museums have their own Web site of which 20 have collections databases on-line. The partner was not able to indicate how many Web sites are brochureware only or have some educational content.

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International, National and Regional Initiatives

We asked partners to describe current or recently completed international initiatives to facilitate remote access to cultual heritage information. These can include participation in professional working groups and other EC funded projects.

• Initiative details

See also Nordic Outline ("Nordisk Outline") for details of an international initiative involving Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden to harmonise their respective translations of Outline.

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Procedural Standards

Almost all Danish Museums use SPECTRUM: The UK Museum Documentation Standard. In addition, "Saglig registrant for de kulturhistoriske museer". 1954 is used.

The partner was not able to answer what Collections Management Software is in use.

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Information Management Standards

We asked about:

• Content and Resource description standards including term lists, Classification Systems and Thesauri
• Content and Structure Description Standards
• Technological Standards and Protocols

Content and Resource Description Standards

Classification Systems in use include:

• SR = Saglig registrant for kulturhistoriske museer with an estimated 600 terms in use in 104 museums covering 1,500,000 objects. Usage includes the National Museum
• ES = Etnografisk Samlings registrant with 400 terms used by the Ethnographic Collection in The National Musuem applied to 300,000 objects.
• Centralregistrering 6 with 450 terms used by the DKC = The National Record of Culture History and applied to 200,000 objects.
• GENREG with 1,800 terms used by the prehistoric and medieval departments of the National Museum of Denmark and applied to 250,000 objects.

Content and Structure Description Standards

The questions relating to content and structure description standards were difficult to answer in Denmark. However, one museum is using a metadata schema 'DKC' for event and object classification. The partner has made the following comments in relation to the concept of 'object' :

'We classify not only physical objects which at some point of time entered a museum (with or without available acquisition-data). We also classify metaphysical "objects", i.e. legends and myths, oral tradition and such connected to a location. This location may - or may not have any other physical remains of cultural activity. Secondly we also classify objects/artefacts, which are only known through oral tradition handed over to professional surveyors, - indeed these objects constitute more than 50 % of our archival records on objects and thereby our knowledge/idea of what was - and is representative in a museum collection of "hard physical artefacts". '

Technological Standards and Protocols

The Danish partner was not able to answer the questions in relation to: data presentation and encoding standards, image format standards, searching distributed databases and protection of intellectual property.

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Future Vision

The Danish response to our question:

'Please use this space to describe ways in which you consider EMII should develop to provide a value added resource to museums in your country. Feel free to address any aspect of our current remit or to propose new roles. You may be as detailed as you like and include references to publications, Web sites, iniatives etc. Whilst we are developing our vision for EMII's future activities we also want to ensure that we capture your needs and concerns.'

First of all - it is very important that EMII will continue and develop. One of the main goals must be, that EMII will provide easier multimedia access to Europe's cultural heritage, both for museums professionals and for everyone else.

EMII means "Museums' Information Institute". Therefore EMII has to provide information primarily to the museums. It should be information about the EU and about access to the knowledge about our cultural heritage and the knowledge that the museums can provide in this area.

EMII must be a tool for museums, a tool they can not "live without". As mentioned it of great importance for Denmark, that EMII will develop, and if it is going to be so, museums in Europe must have some kind of benefit from EMII - They must feel that they can use EMII in their daily work.

It is important that EMII are able to provide information about the possibilities in EU programs from where museums have an opportunity to seek support to their work. And it is important, that the EU can use EMII to provide information.

And it is important that EMII can help museums to find partners to their projects. It is important that EMII in the future is able to give advice to museums in Europe about standards etc. so that they in the future are able to give us all access to their cultural heritage.

From EMII's homepage there must be links to other Web sites that can be of interest for the museum in relation to multimedia access to our cultural heritage.
From EMII's homepage we all in the future should have the possibility, through links, to have access to information about the museums in the different countries and their collections.

From EMII's homepage we all should have information about the museum structure in each country. In Denmark we really need this kind of information.

If EMII does not manage to have financial support from the EU, we find it important that the countries involved in the project will support EMII so we are able to continue the work.

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Funded by the European Commission -Education and Culture Directorate-General - Raphaël Programme

Created on 07 July 2000