The concept promoted by modern museums, regarding the cooperation between museums, was structurally modified in Europe and around the world. The idea of enclosed museum was abandoned long ago. Nowadays, the museums must collaborate in order to keep the pace with the economical and cultural competition. They must develop informal and relational structures, in order to work together more efficiently, using the opportunities at the European level and influencing the cultural and museum policies, at national and European level. These associative structures, named networks, are nowadays accepted as partners for dialogue and consultancy by the European institutions, politicians, national governments, regional authorities and foundations. The European Parliament and the European Commission recommends and encourages the using and developing of sector and thematic networks, in order to facilitate cooperation and the rapid and efficient exchange of information and best practices at European level. The general purpose of a thematic network is to provide a higher coherence to the individual projects of similar entities and to encourage cooperation and information and know-how exchange. The concept regarding the museums and memorial houses as centers targeted to specialists was also modified. Although it’s certain that they are open to pupils and students, so they can learn more about the life and work of the writers, it’s obvious that they became enclosed structures, unknown and inaccessible for the public. The establishing of the Network of Literary Museums and Memorial Houses will allow them to open themselves towards the citizens, thus extending the literary museum space, reconfiguring them into centers focused on education, creativity, entertainment, cultural projects and tourist attractions, facilitating the spread of literature in the social sphere and making them more accessible and attractive for the large public.

     2. Motivation

      The initiative concerning the founding of MLR.NET has as main motivation the objective necessity of cooperation between literary museums and memorial houses from Romania, on themes of common interest, in the circumstances of the inexistence of such a relational structure at a national level. The network of literary museums and memorial houses from Romania will cover the representation needs of the professional who work in these museums or in centers and institutions whose mission is connected or intersected with their mission to transmit information, to elaborate best practice models which proved to be successful for the local public, to redefine the action modes of the institutions they work in. The National Romanian Literature Museum, the promoter of this network, analyzed the potential of the literary museums’ sector and proposes the following strategy for the future network.