As a result of the previous five-year action plan, over 40 percent of the cultural heritage housed in Estonian memory institutions had been digitized by the end of 2023. The focus was largely on heritage from the years 1900–1940. For instance, municipal archives, as well as glass plate and film negatives, were digitized.

Kristiin Meos, digital cultural heritage adviser at the Ministry of Culture, told ERR the goal of digitization is to preserve heritage and make it accessible to as many people as possible.

For example, digitized films from the National Archives have already been used in television and the film industry and a damage atlas for analog films has been created.

The new project will focus on more recent history, specific collections, and thematic areas. In the coming years, there will be increased emphasis on 3D digitization of objects, heritage structures, and archaeological materials — an area that has so far lacked national coordination.

Peeter Mauer, project manager at the National Heritage Board, said extensive 3D digitization has been done around the world, with the main goal being to bring items stored in archives and repositories closer to the public.

"The idea is that people can view and use them. The goal is to make these items available in a format that allows them to be used in multimedia solutions, for instance," Mauer said. "There is a lot of interesting material in our repositories that can best be used in 3D. A 2D image is just a picture, but if we want to make objects usable, whether in games or in creating virtual environments, this opportunity needs to be opened up."

The planned budget for the action plan is €20.6 million, which will be funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

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