Friends


On Sunday 26th of October 1997, late at night, CIMEC - The Information
Centre for Culture and Heritage, a public institution under the Ministry of
Culture maintaining the national databases for the Romanian cultural
heritage was robbed. The thieves entered by cutting the lock of an escape
iron door and by breaking the exterior window (CIMEC is situated at the
ground floor of the Free Press House).
Eight Pentium personal computers - more than a third of the computers of the
institution - the newest and most powerful, the Internet server of CIMEC
included, together with a telefax Minolta, other electronic equipment - were
stolen from six rooms. The local and exterior data networks were savagely
destroyed and the cables dismantled. The paper archive and the furniture
were vandalised.   50 CD-ROMs with original programmes were taken away. The
restoration of what remained from the computer network, the recovering of
the destroyed applications and programmes, the Web pages and databases will
take many weeks of hard work. The damage is the equivalent of the budget of
CIMEC for three months. It is a severe lost for an institution with very
modest financial resources, the more that the whole activity of CIMEC relies
on computers.
By the stolen of the Internet server, the main electronic resource for the
Romanian cultural heritage (http://cimec.sfos.ro), visited by 1,500 persons
monthly, is disconnected for an uncertain period.
The Police is investigating the case. Without financial help, CIMEC will not
be able to recover soon. The electronic archive of the Romanian cultural
heritage is in danger. We need the support of all cultural institutions and
companies.

         Dan Matei, director