Date/Time
Date(s): 12/12/2013
Time: 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Location
WLB204, Wing Lung Bank Building, Shaw Campus,
Language: English
Admission:
EU Expert Workshop: Europeana – Open Access to European Culture
Speaker:
Joris Pekel, Community Coordinator Cultural Heritage, Europeana Foundation
On 12 December 2013, the EUAP hosted Mr. Joris Pekel, Community Coordinator Cultural Heritage of the Europeana Foundation.
Speaker Mr. Joris Pekel
Europeana is an online portal supported by the European Union, which brings together the digitized collections of 2,300 major galleries, archives, museums and libraries from across Europe. So far the Europeana Foundation has over 30 million objects stored online, which are now freely available to the public and anyone working in the cultural and creative industries worldwide. With Europeana also has constantly evolving Virtual Exhibitions – e.g. the current Europeana 1914-1918 project (about World War I) or the Europeana 1989 project (stories and memorabilia from the fall of the Iron Curtain). For more specialized users, there is Europeana Professional, the official source for technical information, metadata standards and case studies. Lastly, there is the Europeana API (Application Programming Interface) web service, which provides remote access to the Europeana collections, increasingly connected by the Linked Open Data pilot project.
Europeana, which has just celebrated its 5th birthday, is the recipient of the 2013 European Museum Academy Award.
Joris Pekel introduced Europeana to the audience and discussed the manifold problems involved in bringing together Europe’s vast cultural heritage, ranging from the political and legal to the technological. Providers have given Europeana and its users an open license for the metadata stored in the system. However, users still have to check whether the work in question is in the public domain or whether the owners reserve rights for further usage.
Although only an estimated 7% of Europe’s cultural heritage collection (of approximately 60,000 institutions) have so far been digitally catalogued, Europeana has already given way numerous projects, may of them for the first time linking cultural items which are preserved in geographically different locations. Long-term, Europeana is therefore not simply a huge ‘museum’ or ‘archive’, but a living network and electronic dialogue strengthening the consciousness of a common, shared and interconnected European identity transgressing all national borders – ultimately the overarching political and cultural goal of a project, which is unique in the world.
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