The meeting was attended by Gatis Karlsons (Directorate General of Latvia State Archives), Digna Berze, Guntis Shvitini (State Archives of Latvia), Valters Shcerbinskis (Latvia State Historical Archives), Linas Saldukas (Lithuanian Emigration Institute), Karin Kiisk (University of Tartu) and Piret Noorhani (Estonian National Museum).
The Latvian and Lithuanian colleagues talked about the expansion of their network. The representatives of the Estonian working group introduced their plans for the coming year, which had already secured the approval and financial support of the Compatriot Program. The participants discussed the ways in which Latvian and Lithuanian colleagues could join these activities. There are plans to organize an event on the preservation of cultural heritage for the Baltic communities in Toronto in October 2008 and, in cooperation with the Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council, a seminar on audiovisual archives in Stockholm in spring 2009. The conference on the Baltic archives abroad, scheduled for June 2009, was also discussed.
An important topic was the development of the information portal and issues related to its organization and contents. The Estonians told their colleagues about recent structural changes in the portal. The Latvians and Lithuanians in their turn introduced their possibilities to contribute to the development of the portal. As both Latvians and Lithuanians lack special finances for 2008 they have decided to do what they can – inasmuch their daily work load and institutional resources at their disposal permit. However, they attempt to get some state support for the development of the portal for the coming years. The participants concluded that BaltHerNet should also apply for extra funding from various foundations in addition to the state support.
On April 18 Karin Kiisk and Piret Noorhani participated in the photo seminar of the Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council held at the University of Latvia. Piret Noorhani also took part in the BAAC board meeting where she introduced the plans of BaltHerNet.
Piret Noorhani