Culture set against nature, as the cultivation of matter and spirit, is the most powerful, the most interesting, the most rewarding and the most pleasant aspect of our personal and collective experience. The growing awareness of the need for education and culture that is opposed to social deviations, religious fanaticism and racial inequalities, has developed not only in individuals or educational, cultural and scientific institutions, but in recent times increasingly in programmes of certain governments and international organizations.¹ Dilemmas and questions regarding whether culture is a characteristic of an ethnic group, geographical area or whether it is a social, religious, political or economic institution, are giving way to the interpretation that culture is actually a set of inherited concepts through which people communicate.

Borislav Stojkov, who deals particularly with the issue of ‘spatial integration’ of the countries of East and South-East Europe, points out that ‘wars and conquests have constantly affected population movements, pushed boundaries, but have also influenced the appearance and disappearance of different cultural patterns’ (Ref. Reference Stojkov2, p. 217). Whether culture is a significant segment of globalization or of separation of certain ethnicities is a frequently asked question. While globalization, according to Thomas Friedman, is an international system that has replaced the Cold War, Dominique Moïsi defines it as ‘a dynamic, ongoing process that involves relentless integration of markets, nation-states and technologies to an extent so far unseen, and that allows individuals, corporations and countries further, faster, deeper and cheaper reach towards the whole world than ever before’ (Ref. Reference Moïsi3, p. 23). Globalization, Moïsi believes, ‘creates uncertainty and raises the question of identity’, and this is why it is ‘important [...] to affirm one’s individuality’ (Ref. Reference Moïsi3, pp. 26–28) during the domination of this idea.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, due to the outstanding nature and speed of technological progress, on the one hand, and the focused efforts of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, on the other, cultural heritage has been emphasized as an essential factor of the globalization process, and a pledge of inter-ethnic dialogues, while the use of new information and communication technologies, through which cultural heritage is being preserved and promoted, should contribute to the affirmation and achievement of EFA (Education for All) goals.

The digital form of a document, and the meticulously compiled bibliographical data connected with it, organized in developed normative files, ensure the safe-keeping and promotion of documentary-historical, cultural and scientific heritage, contribute to the development of knowledge democracy and lend support to distance learning. Descriptive, structural and administrative metadata are the key to interoperability, accessibility and openness to the use of digital contents; they constitute value-charged information that ensures physical and intellectual access to the said contents. The possibilities are limitless and the advantages are obvious. The greatest advantage is easy accessibility from all corners of the world, provided that users are equipped with the appropriate technology and that they are properly trained. The virtual library is a powerful tool for comparisons, research and for directing collective efforts towards a common goal of developing e-learning. The requirements for content interoperability on the Semantic Web, and also for multilingualism and multiculturalism, bring us closer, but simultaneously distance us from the set goal.

In the process of digitization of cultural heritage, or library, archival and museum materials, what are the primary requirements? The primary archival requirement is insight into library holdings as an independent entity and into its structure, its relationship with other holdings in the archive, its social role and significance. Detection, identification and retrieval of digital resources seem simple to each user, who will remain in this belief if the digitization of resources is well prepared, if information is transferred into electronic form in a regular and quality manner, if it is equipped with appropriate indices and consistent metadata that allow multiple searches of the content. Meeting the following expectations and requirements will contribute to this: cooperation between cultural institutions in the sphere of digitization of the national heritage; protection and sustainability of information legibility regardless of changes in hardware and software solutions for digitization; originality and creativity of digital databases; preservation of copyright and meeting users’ requests without economic barriers.

The International Council on Archives, at the Congress held in 2005 in Abu Dhabi, gave its support to the Alexandria Manifesto on Libraries, the Information Society in Action, adopted by IFLA on 11 November 2005. In a century in which cultural and educational institutions are recognized as information, communication and ‘transactional’ services, a common concern for the preservation and presentation of cultural heritage establishes a strong link between the local and national community, history, science and culture; it contributes, on the general cultural map, to the unification of the holdings maintained by these institutions and to the integrity of common memory.

The Resolution of the International Council on Archives (ICA) passed in Quebec emphasized two basic truths: (1) that libraries, museums and archives are ‘institutions dealing with the protection of documentary heritage’, and that their collaboration yields positive effects ‘in terms of investment, profitability and quality of customer service’; and (2) that library, archive and museum holdings ‘are an integral part of the world documentary heritage’⁴ and, as such, are equally important for the development of the digitization project entitled Memory of the World.

After UNESCO declared the year 2002 the Year of the Protection of the World Cultural Heritage,⁵ the following institutions in Serbia were united in the joint task of forming the much needed National Centre for Digitization: the Archaeological Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Archive of Serbia, the Yugoslav Film Archive, the Faculty of Mathematics in Belgrade, the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the National Library of Serbia, the National Museum in Belgrade, and the Republican Institute for Protection of Cultural Heritage, and they were supported by the Library Museum, Matica srpska [Serbian Cultural Society] and the Archive of Yugoslavia (i.e. the Archive of Serbia and Montenegro), with a view to making this Centre a ‘prototype model of cooperation within the framework of scientific and cultural institutions in the twenty-first century information society’ (Ref. Reference Vraneš6, p. 26). Digitized and adequately presented national heritage in the era of contemporary computer-oriented societies represents, as envisaged by the mission of the Centre from the very beginning, proof of the existence and continuity of the nation in time and space, a possibility for collaboration with our national communities in the region and abroad, an opportunity for cooperation with developed countries concerning the current trend of the mutual interweaving of computer sciences and their application in the sphere of culture, which, in economic terms, is a significant value that can bring financial gain in different ways. Bearing in mind the fact that a set of digitized national library and archive collections constitutes the European Digital Library and the Memory of the World, and that ‘a clear national strategy can stimulate greater participation at the global level’ (Ref. Reference Bultmann7, pp. 89-96), the National Center for Digitization was created in Serbia. The Centre should formulate and develop a national strategy – it should not be restricted by the demands of individual groups, organizations or regions; it is to be supported by the work and ideas of prominent institutions of culture, science and education; it is to be protected and promoted through the authority of intellectuals who contribute to its progress; it is to be directed by proven library and archive ‘tools’, such as inventories, registers, catalogues, bibliographies of digital projects and their contents; it is to be coordinated and supervised by reputable researchers. The National Center for Digitization was supposed to ensure our entry into the digital memory of the world, but the process is on hold for the moment, while our prominent libraries somewhat uncertainly reconnoitre the terrain through individual projects, preferring to join European and international initiatives, rather than foster the stability of our own national strategy. Hence, we have different types of software, uneven levels of searchability, selectivity and inconsistency when it comes to individual initiatives, even when we refer to institutions such as the National Library of Serbia, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Matica srpska. Each of these institutions has reached its maximum, in terms of professional engagement, in politically, economically, and therefore professionally, highly unstable times, but since they were not coordinated by the National Center for Digitization, they remained enclosed within their own institutional plans.

In the years to come, in the course of which Serbia should organize and thoughtfully develop a system of virtual information and communication services, for which shared cataloguing is an essential prerequisite, the trademark of each region will survive in the regional, local library holdings and in archival materials, which will differentiate them and facilitate participation in national scientific research projects, in accordance with the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) and the UN Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), which Serbia, fulfilling its international obligations in the EU accession process, ratified in 2010. Regional collections and special archival collections constitute our cultural heritage, our historical retrospective and our national identification in a global world.

What is the role of higher education institutions in all this, including many inherited voluminous personal libraries, which include old, rare books and manuscripts? The Library ‘Svetozar Marković’, for example, has 27 valuable separate libraries, whereas the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade has 15 of them (Ref. Reference Vraneš8, pp. 164–198). Let us consider on this occasion the Faculty of Philology.

The Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade, inheriting 200 years of higher education tradition in Serbia, is visible and unique on the educational map of Serbia and even Europe, considering the number of languages taught, its resources, personnel and interests. Being aware of its own needs, it has opted for creating a virtual library and making it available for the purpose of distance learning. Therefore, the Faculty of Philology began the process of digitization of cultural heritage by focusing, to begin with, on its own editions, which constitute the backbone of scientific thought in the fields of study of 34 languages and their literatures and cultures, as well as in the fields of librarianship, informatics, archivistics and museology. Recognizing the social sciences and humanities as the basis of the culture of every country, we believe that our electronic library, which enables absolute searchability of all texts, as well as queries and responses in both the Cyrillic and Latin script, represents a significant contribution to the educational and scientific process.

This is the only digital library in Serbia completely available to all the actors of culture, education and science, to all students and even to all our citizens. The Faculty of Philology has initiated, together with the Ivo Andrić Foundation, the Archive of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, where Andrić’s manuscripts are kept, and the National Library of Serbia, the preparation and publication of the complete works of Ivo Andrić, a critical edition accompanied by an appropriate textological apparatus, which would not be possible without a manuscript analysis. Therefore, over a period of five months, we have digitized documents stored in 82 archival binders, containing 50 notebooks of Andrić’s, as well as the writer’s correspondence, which are precious for drawing historical, political and literary conclusions, as well as numerous other Andrić texts unknown to the broader cultural public. In this way, we are creating a basis for textological research and ensuring the safe-keeping, protection and quality searchability of manuscript materials. This is a unique digital library in the country and in the region, and we are not aware of any digital library of the same significance, scope and profile, dealing with one author to this extent. The Digital Library of the Faculty of Philology is an integral part of a larger project, under the guidance of the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which aims at establishing the Serbia Forum, through which digitized material is absolutely and multiply available in other browsers (such as Google). Through the Serbia Forum, which should encompass 100 institutions, a unique way of entering into the digital cultural heritage of Serbia will be offered, while presenting a description of prominent artefacts and manuscripts of our cultural heritage in 12 languages.

On the ‘open road’ of shaping world memory while facing the challenges of education, the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade contributes, as always, to the spreading of information literacy and general enlightenment, digital preservation, safe-keeping and use of documentary-historical, cultural and scientific heritage.

The phrase ‘open road’, meaning contemporary mastering of information, is associated with the ‘mythology of the open road’, introduced by Cox (Ref. Reference Cox9, p. 149). The latter can be perceived as an expression of admiration for and appreciation of the broad and diverse possibilities of information. To the same extent, it expresses the ironic aspects and the illusion of the freedom of knowledge accessibility, which is illusory since access is restricted by technological, economic, ethnic, political, legal, geographical and linguistic barriers, none of which have remained unknown. In today’s societies there is a tendency to transcend all these barriers through knowledge accessibility, and by means of electronic media, with the help of the so-called cultural diplomacy, which is possible, among other things, owing to the above-mentioned conservation projects and promotion of cultural heritage. In accordance with the recommendations of the Vienna Convention on Cultural Diplomacy (Ref. 10, p. 95), viewed as a social, educational and artistic correspondence aiming to present the historical, cultural and national heritage, in order to emphasize the national identity, on the one hand, and a friendly intent, on the other, books and libraries have an important social role to play. Along with museums, archives, theatres and cinemas, books and libraries are nowadays, as they have been throughout history, from the beginning of their existence, active agents of intercultural and interethnic communication – first of all, through general ethical and aesthetic values and the characteristics of the individual cultures they are profiling, and by which they are recognized, and then through the standardized professional specific characteristics that enable the mutual permeation of librarianship and other disciplines, as well as a horizontal connectivity within the profession in the interests of the people and its attendant culture. Any cultural diplomacy owes gratitude for its best achievements precisely to books and libraries, as they are constant and reliable ambassadors of cultural values and heritage.

Archives, museums and libraries are ‘the focal points of the community’; these institutions provide ‘a harmonious blend of rationality and dreams’ (Ref. Reference Gorman11, p. 14). They draw public attention to rare, unique collections, pieces of a national cultural heritage puzzle, which encompasses manuscripts, books, audio, video and electronic recordings, their authors and publishers, as well as all the cultural workers who gather around them. They are the treasurers of the world cultural heritage.