Real Versus Digital: Sustainability optimization for cultural heritage preservation in national libraries

根据国际图书馆协会联合会的说法，“国家图书馆是一个国家文化遗产的守护者。他们收集、保存并向所有公民提供一个国家的历史，并向全世界人民打开一扇了解这个国家的窗口。”多年来，国家图书馆一直在开展馆藏数字化项目。由于能源使用和数字基础设施成本的增加，图书馆面临着越来越大的压力，在确保最大可用性和可访问性的同时，减少能源使用和排放。从气候的角度来看，避免物理和数字基础设施的并行运行似乎是明智的。然而，无论是纯物理还是纯数字都是不可行的，因为对数字媒体的需求正在增加，而由于法律、学术和文化的要求，必须保留物理媒体。因此，必须找到经济上可行、满足法律、学术和文化要求、简化用户访问、尽量减少能源使用和排放的基础设施的最佳组合。ReVerDi项目采用生命周期可持续性评估方法，从环境、社会文化和经济角度对这些基础设施进行评估。因此，它为国家图书馆和其他GLAM机构创建面向未来的基础设施提供了所需的科学基础。该联盟由来自英国、荷兰和瑞士的三个研究小组和三个国家图书馆组成。由一个研究小组和一个图书馆组成的国家小组负责在各自国家执行项目，而每个研究小组负责一个跨国重点专题（环境、社会文化、经济）。这三个研究小组具有互补的背景（自然科学、工程、社会科学、人文科学）和专业知识（数字技术、LCA、文化遗产），这为我们提供了坚实的基础。

According to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions "National libraries are the guardians of a country's national cultural heritage. They collect, preserve and make available a country's history to all of its citizens and open a window on that country to people all over the world." National libraries have been running projects to digitize their collections for years. Due to rising energy use and cost of digital infrastructures, there is increasing pressure on libraries to reduce their energy use and emissions whilst ensuring maximum usability and accessibility. From a climate perspective, avoiding parallel operation of physical and digital infrastructures seems advisable. However, neither a physical-only nor digital-only scenario is feasible because the demand for digital media is increasing, while physical media must be kept due to legal, academic and cultural requirements. It is thus necessary to find an optimal mix of infrastructures that is economically viable, meets legal, academic and cultural requirements, simplifies user access, minimizes energy use and emissions. The ReVerDi project applies the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment approach to assess these infrastructures from an environmental, social-cultural and economic perspective. It thereby provides the scientific basis required for national libraries and other GLAM institutions to create future-proof infrastructures. The consortium consists of three research groups and three national libraries from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Country teams consisting of a research group and a library are responsible for project implementation in the respective country, while each research group is responsible for a transnational focus topic (environmental, social-cultural, economic). The three research groups have complementary backgrounds (natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities) and expertise (digital technologies, LCA, cultural heritage), which provide a strong foundation.