DIGITAL ARCHIVE
Important collections of music and documents are today in the possession of a number of organizations (cultural associations, composers’ unions, museums a.o.) as well as individuals. This material constitutes the Music Heritage of Greece and remains scattered, sometimes terribly inaccessible and facing the danger of destruction since there has never been a coordinated effort to document or digitize it.
One of the main objectives of the Institute is the preservation of Greek Music. Therefore in December 2001, IEMA organized the “1st Pan-Hellenic Symposium on Music Research” (site available only in Greek) at the Ministry of Culture. The Symposium resulted in a proposition for the digitization, the development and the presentation of Greek Music Culture.
The proposition was submitted in 2003 to the Special Secretariat for the “Information Society” Operational Programme of the Ministry of Finance in the framework of invitation 65 that concerned “Documentation, development and promotion of Greek Culture”. After it was evaluated it was granted with a budget of 650.000 €, covered by 75% from the European Union and by 25% by the Ministry of Culture.
The project articulates in the following sub-projects:
• Creation of a digitization, documentation and preservation centre for the Greek Music Heritage.
• Development of digital archive of Newer and Contemporary Greek Music Culture.
IEMA’s intentions are the following:
• Ensure high-quality digitization of the music articles with simultaneous high speed
• Have both immobile and mobile digitization units
• Be able to properly and operationally manage the digitized material (multimedia digital databases)
• Scientifically and prudentially document the material (descriptions and comments of the articles)
• Preserve the digitized material in appropriate conditions, as well as the original, when needed
2. The development of a digital archive of Newer and Contemporary Greek Music Culture, through the collaboration with a large and representative number of music archives and collections, as well as with personal composers’ archives.