Dear colleagues, friends and partners from Estonia, Latvia and ...

Dear colleagues, friends and partners from Estonia, Latvia and Russia.
It’s a great honour to be selected as an example project to tell a story
about the programme’s priority number 2, named “Common
challenges”. In the name of all our project partners I have to thank Joint
Technical Secretariat for this invitation and opportunity to present
ourselves, our goals and activities thus making “Cross Border E-archive”
more visible. However, I should say that project like this is exactly what
the priority number 2 speaks about – the challenge. The part of me who
is the scientist likes to start with definitions. What do we actually mean
by challenges? Yesterday I have googled and found some very nice
definitions. One, for instance, says that challenge is something that by its
nature or character serves as a serious test. Sound too way serious. I
even found a web page called “The Challenge”. And I like what it says -
The Challenge is your chance to show yourself and others what you can
do!
So let me show you what we can do within the priority number 2 –
which aims at addressing common problems, initiating and continuing
joint actions in the areas of common interest on both sides of the
border. In the following slides I will try to follow JTS’s instructions and
will use 4 keywords to present who we are and what we do.
Partnerships

Partnerlused
Partnerība
Cотрудничество
Together we are 5 + 1. All together – we are many different people from
all three countries representing different institutions and organizations
who have put an effort to build strong partnerships within this project.
Psychologists say that close, positive relationships increase our interest
in new experiences and give people the energy to explore. From the very
few pictures on the slide you can observe how hard we are trying to
explore the best ways of approaching the project goal. One should admit
– very serious faces. But don’t forget we are trying to address common
challenges, trying to pass that serious test.
Preservation
Säilitamine
Saglabāšana
Cохранение
This is to describe what we want to achieve. The general objective of our
project is to preserve historical and cultural heritage of Estonia, Latvia
and Russia cross border area archives as well as to provide wider access
to this heritage for the citizens of the area. As seen from the pictures
archives store valuable information related to the common history,
culture and population of the citizens of all three countries, especially in
the cross border area. In the pictures on top left and right – these are
our partners from Estonia and Russia exploring archival materials in
Latvian archives during our kick-off seminar in Riga, that has happened
just a few weeks ago.

The cross border area of Estonia - Latvia - Russia has deep common
history that has affected people life at personal, cultural and political
level. A great part of historical evidence of this history on individual and
institutional level is preserved in archives. In order to prepare the
content that people require and that has historical value in all three
countries, dedicated team of archive experts/researchers will conduct
research (field-work) in the archives of neighbouring countries in order
to define the themes and collections that will be selected for further
digitalization. The digitalisation of the archive materials will have direct
impact on preservation of the heritage that is kept in cross border
archives.
Promotion
Edendamine
Veicināšana
продвижение
To tell the story as complete as possible I should admit that still in many
cases only archivists have access to the depository that is kept in paper
and this fact makes the access for many people very restricted. And, of
course, there is also another side of coin. Archival resources that are
considered to be both with historical and educational potential and that
are already accessible are not used by the majority of cross border
citizens. Insufficient efforts have been put into their access to wider
society.
So, the specific objective of Cross Border E-archive project is to to create
a digital environment to provide access to archival materials that will be
selected for description and digitalization. Through the life of our project
we will also be exploring how to improve our collections and items

epresentations to meet the needs of different users. We believe that by
the end of our project, and that will come in the spring 2014, the online
platform will be accessible, with metadata descriptions translated in
English, Estonian, Latvian and Russian languages. Through this type of
virtual archive users at all levels and geographic locations will be able to
make connections between their personal lives, personal histories and
their shared cultural heritage.
Participation
Osalemine
Līdzdalība
Участие
Finally, as I said at the beginning of my presentation, we are highly
appreciating the opportunity that we were given to participate with our
presentation at the Annual Event of the Programme. And I must say that
not only today but also in other events where we have been presenting
it has been and will be the challenge to speak about the project at the
stage when we are not able to demonstrate the results yet. In terms of
timeline we are only in the first quarter of our project, there is three
times more time to go until we will be able to show results and to
demonstrate impacts. However I personally believe that it is highly
important to participate and to make use of any opportunity to talk, to
convince and to prepare our users for participation in the digital e-
archive. Especially we have to think of the future generations that will
use it for creating new links on the personal and much larger scale. As
seen from the pictures – participation is fun and highly energizing
process. With having proof in my hands I want to complement
psychologists and say that not only partnerships and positive

elationships but also participation gives people the energy to explore
and raises an interest in having new experiences.
The last slide in my presentation includes few basic facts about our
project. All partners are named here as well.
In case if you want to learn more about our project I offer you 2 options:
1) You can get a copy of our brochure that includes general
information about partners and project itself, or
2) You can take an opportunity to talk to other representatives of
our project who are here today. Indra Auzāne, project manager
from the state agency “Culture Information Systems” and Kadri
Tooming, project manager from the National Archives of Estonia.
Special thanks to Kadri who have helped me with my Estonian
pronunciation of keywords; she definitely was better teacher than
I student.
Thank you very much for your attention!