is a project to create a virtual reference room which reflects multi-lingual and multi-cultural complexity. Projects within it will build on existing ones to link inventories, classification systems and reference catalogues from the museum world, with those from the library and archive world. New work will include multilingual authority files for names, concepts and places so that materials in all memory institutions are accessible via variant names. Coupled with work on the semantic web, this will ensure that persons can use local and regional variants to gain access to materials at the national and international level. A second phase will link these ideas with the vision of broadband digital libraries as a first step towards a grid for culture.

Possible Leads: Call 1: Traugott Koch (SEMKOS), Christof Wolters (AMP)

Call 2: David Wallace (E-Science Grid), Manfred Thaller (German Digital Libraries)