Today, October 9, 2025, the Culture Information Systems Center (CISC) officially launched the new public version of the National Museum Collection Joint Catalogue (NMCC) www.nmkk.lv, developed with the support of the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility. The event focused not only on the presentation of the digital platform, but also on a high-level discussion on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in preserving cultural heritage and promoting accessibility.
Jānis Ziediņš, Deputy Director of CISC for Digital Development, presented the development of NMCC since 2005, revealing that the catalog currently includes 134 museums, 7,013 collections, and more than 2 million items.
A significant highlight at the event was the discussion "AI and cultural heritage: a never-ending conversation," which was attended by Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Center Natālija Čerņecka, Microsoft AI Business Solutions Strategy Manager Lydia Teryoshina, and Jānis Ziediņš. The discussion focused on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in preserving cultural heritage, promoting accessibility, and engaging the public.
Alongside professional insights, participants shared personal examples of cultural heritage experiences that have inspired them and discussed how AI can make such experiences even more profound and interactive. It was emphasized that the potential of AI lies not only in digitization, but also in interpretation—the ability to bring cultural heritage to life and create a more profound experience of historical events in the here and now.
NMCC, which is a state-level information system, brings together digital descriptions of all items in the collections of Latvia's accredited museums in a single catalog. The innovation of the new public version was developed as part of the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility project "Joint ICT governance and Digital solutions for cultural institutions."
The project involved the reconstruction and modernization of the information system "National Museum Collection Joint Catalogue," making it a modern and user-friendly platform for the dissemination and promotion of cultural heritage accumulated in Latvia's accredited museums, including ensuring compliance with accessibility requirements.
Based on user needs research, one of the solutions implemented is an AI-based search engine with a chat feature that allows users to find the information they are interested in faster and more conveniently by asking questions in natural language and receiving answers in the form of a dialogue. The new solution uses several Microsoft Azure AI services and GPT models.
Alongside the development of the public portal, improvements have also been made to the working environment and system solutions have been refined, facilitating the management of museum collections.
The project was implemented within the framework of the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility Mechanism Plan 2.1.1.1.i. investment project "Joint ICT governance and Digital solutions for cultural institutions" from July 2024. The total project costs for the reconstruction of the public portal and the improvement of the working environment are approximately 222 thousand euros, of which the Recovery and Resilience Facility funding is approximately 184 thousand euros and the state budget funding is approximately 38 thousand euros to cover VAT.
Information prepared by:
Aija Kasemira
Culture Information Systems Center
Project Coordinator
E-mail: aija.kasemira@kisc.gov.lv
Tel.: +371 29814749
(Translated with the help of DeepL Translate)
