On 13 August, the Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation (ICCD) and the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy signed a Convention to establish and develop procedures for cataloguing the Jewish cultural heritage. Using the digital platforms of the General Information System for the catalogue (SIGECweb) and of the national charter of constraints (VIR) to catalogue the cultural assets, the Convention promotes the exchange of information aimed at developing the National Catalogue and related protection systems. The President, Dario Disegni, signed the agreement on behalf of the Foundation, and, on behalf of the ICCD, its Director, Laura Moro.
The Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy – a non-profit organization, set up by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) in 1986, aims to promote the recovery, preservation, restoration and enhancement of the Jewish historical and artistic heritage in Italy, including all types of cultural, religious, archaeological, archival, literary and musical assets, and to promote knowledge of them in Italy and abroad. The goal is to ensure the preservation of the Jewish cultural heritage in Italy, representing the widespread and deep-rooted memory in a country where Jews have lived for over 2200 years •
The ICCD, in line with its institutional mission, provides the Foundation with access to the SIGECweb for initiatives regarding the Jewish cultural heritage and provides interoperability services for the extraction of cataloging data from SIGECweb produced under the Convention, to be used on the Foundation’s web portal.
The Convention is the legal instrument ensuring cooperation in accordance with the flow of catalogue data managed using SIGECweb, and consolidates the objectives of system rationalization, and the standardization of procedures and methodologies extended to all public and private bodies that contribute to the national cataloguing system.
The terms of the agreement ensure that participating institutions have full ownership of their information systems and data produced and ensure the sharing of updates made to the original databases using specific interoperability protocols.
The signing of the Convention states the conditions for a census of artistic and cultural assets at the national level and for increasing the quality and study of specific academic content through the cooperation of major organizations. The ICCD, by providing the Foundation with access to the System, will encourage the recovery of catalogues of Jewish cultural assets and their complete alignment within a single platform for integration and data management.
The Director of the ICCD , Laura Moro, and the President of the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy, Dario Disegni, have expressed their deep satisfaction with this important milestone in the cataloguing of the Jewish cultural heritage in Italy and its wider use.