Sofija Klarin Zadravec, Dragana Koljenik, Anita Marin, Tamara Ilić-Olujić (National and University Library in Zagreb)

Networks of Virtual Exhibitions – Creative and Innovative Ways of Interpreting and Communicating Cultural Heritage

The creative reuse and interpretation of cultural heritage presents a challenge for heritage institutions that traditionally have been more focused on the organization of heritage information and less on its interpretation. Following the increased use of the virtual exhibition as a form of digital storytelling a gradual qualitative shift took place from one-off products to sustainable collaborative systems.

Such systems provide tools for a large number of users and uses, achieving cost and labour effectiveness of creating a virtual exhibition. The presentation will give a brief overview of the development of the collaborative virtual exhibition systems with an emphasis on the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK)’s Virtual Exhibitions Network System which stems from the Creative Content Reuse Digital Content Project (2018).

Through developing new collaborative tools and carrying out education activities a cooperation of librarians was achieved and resulted in the creation of several new virtual exhibitions. Next step will be the creation of Greetings from Croatia virtual network sub system (2019) that will offer new opportunities for the heritage sector in the context of cultural tourism and education.