The meeting was attended by participants from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. While digitization is a powerful tool to facilitate access and thereby help to preserve the originals, participants stressed that it has limits and could not replace conventional preservation work. It is expected that the project will enable the participating institutions to test digitization techniques and equipment and assess the related financial, legal and dissemination aspects. A training session took place in this context in the National Library in Prague in November 1996. Some 150 delegates from 65 countries participated in the Conference, which highlighted the results achieved by the Programme and the need for regional and national plans for preservation and access.
National registers identify the documentary inheritance of the nation.
The national registers will increase awareness of the importance of the national documentary heritage and the need for a co-ordinated and integrated policy to ensure that endangered documentary heritage is preserved. Groups of nations like the Scandinavian countries or the Baltic States may compile regional registers to list documentary heritage which is integral to their collective memory. 33 countries have proposed the nomination of elements of their documentary heritage for the Register.