Title: Digitalisation and Italian religious cultural heritage: the value of 'BeWeb'

Authors: Emanuela Macrì

Addresses: Department of Law, Economics and Sociology, University of 'Magna Graecia' at Catanzaro, Viale Europa Germaneto 88100 Catanzaro (IT), Italy

Abstract: The process of digitalisation plays an important role for the valorisation and innovation of cultural heritage it may represent new kinds of cultural consumption, dissemination and preservation. The aim of this paper is to analyse the general process of digitalisation of cultural heritage and analyse BeWeb the official portal of Italian ecclesiastical cultural heritage. This study is an exploratory and qualitative analysis developed along two stages, in the first a theoretical framework about the digitalisation process was carried out, while in the second the case of BeWeb has been extensively analysed. The results show that main purpose of the portal is to promote the knowledge of the ecclesiastical cultural heritage owned by Italian dioceses and ecclesiastical cultural institutes on their self-owned holdings belonging to their historical, artistic, archival, and library assets and at the same time guarantee protection, valorisation and preservation of their heritage in a sustainable perspective.

Keywords: digitalisation; BeWeb; ecclesiastical heritage; cultural value; religious value; Catholic Church; digital portal; cross-domain; authority file; preservation; valorisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDCET.2020.112542

International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 2020 Vol.3 No.2, pp.148 - 165

Received: 20 Dec 2019
Accepted: 17 Jul 2020
Published online: 20 Jan 2021 *

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