On 18th January 1999 a collaboration agreement was signed by the Fundación Marcelino Botín and the Fundación Residencia de Estudiantes for development of the project for a Network of Centres and Virtual Archive of the Silver Age (1868-1936).

The objective of the project is to safeguard and disseminate testimonies of the intellectual history of this period of Spanish culture, in the areas of literature, art and science. With this aim in mind, an information system shared by different centres has been developed, allowing the user to consult their inventories, catalogues and, in certain cases, the documents themselves.

The aim is make it possible for resources having some relationship but included in different collections to be located (and where appropriate consulted) via the Internet, as though they were part of one same collection.

The Network and its coordination
Creation of a Network among institutions whose documentary resources are related to the Spanish culture of the period 1868-1936 (between 20 and 25 in the EU, Latin America and the USA).
Establishment of a common methodology and of a permanent coordinating team; projects for cooperation in R&D.

Conservation
Location and recovery of collections under threat, in poor state of conservation or inaccessible, through the following:

    A programme of conservation and restoration of the resources kept in custody by the institutions belonging to the Network.
    Copying of such resources, where appropriate and on the most adequate support media, for their exchange and dissemination.
    The acquisition or placing in deposit of collections when so determined by their owners.

Process
Promotion and coordination among the participants in the processes of inventory development, description, computerised cataloguing and digitalisation of the resources, performed such that joint projects be facilitated.

Pilot project
Use of all the aforementioned resources for the implementation of a pilot project for a virtual catalogue of contemporary Spanish culture.

Project dissemination
The actions taken in this respect encompass, among other things, the publication of a directory of institutions, including a guide to the resources in custody, the establishment of this website and campaigns for the broadcasting of the entire process.

FORECAST OF RESOURCES TO BE PROCESSED AS FROM 1999

Collections incorporated

                50

New collections

                17

Inventories processed

                50

Bibliographic registers

    Converted

         40.000

    Catalogued

       230.000

Archive documents

    Descriptions converted

         70.000

    Described and digitalised

       105.000

    Indexed and digitalised

       174.000

    Documents copied

       172.000

Total documents digitalised

       451.000

Total documents processed

       790.000

PILOT PROJECT

Registers incorporated in collective catalogue

   360.000

     52.000

COSTS

FORESEEN FINANCING (1999 - 2002)