Linked Heritage Glossary

In the context of Europeana, an aggregator is an organisation that gathers material from individual organisations, standardises formats and metadata, channeling them into Europeana according to Europeana guidelines and procedures. Aggregators also support content providers with administration, operations and training. Types of aggregators can be: country aggregators (e.g. the Italian national aggregator Cultura Italia), project aggregator (e.g. Linked Heritage Project Aggregator), independent organisations (with no Ministry or other mandate). Even individuals are invited to collaborate to the project providing historical documentation (e.g. citizens wishing to contribute to Europeana special collections, i.e. World War One Family History). Europeana encourages the contribution of aggregators that fit the needs of different countries, domains and users.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: MINT Services and Why and how to contribute to Europeana.

See also: Content provider, Linked Heritage aggregation, MINT

Best practice networks (BPN) promote the adoption of standards and specifications for making European digital libraries more accessible and usable by combining the "consensus building and awareness raising" function of a thematic network with the large-scale implementation in real-life context of one or more concrete specifications or standards by its members. Each BPN tries out, on a sufficient mass of content, one or more of the implementation approaches discussed in the network in order to draw conclusions on their validity and if necessary to adapt them. The Commission can organise, as appropriate, "clustering meetings" for different BPNs, inviting all relevant stakeholders (including representatives ofother relevant projects under EU programmes, of relevant European and international bodies etc.) in order to achieve broad consensus and create the conditions for the widest possible uptake of the recommendations of the BPNs. The final output of the BPN should therefore reflect both the results of the large scale implementations and the results and recommendations of the clustering activities.

Linked Heritage is a Best Practice Network (BPN).

See: Data set

In the aggregation landscape of Europeana, content is a physical or digital object that is part of Europe's cultural and/or scientific heritage.

See also: Data, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA), Digital object, Metadata

In the context of the Europeana aggregation landscape, a content provider (or data provider) is any organisation that provides digital content accessible via Europeana making available metadata, a thumbnail and a link pointing to a digital object on the provider's Web site. Europeana only ingests and indexes the institution's metadata, while the digital objects remain by the original institution.

See: Europeana Professional: Providers' FAQs and Linked Heritage's Content aggregation: tools & guidelines.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: Why and how to contribute to Europeana and MINT Services.

See also: Aggregator, Cultural / Public heritage institution, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA), Mapping, Metadata, MINT, Preview, Private sector

The expression cultural, or public, heritage institution comprises (mainly) public institution such as: museums, art galleries, libraries, state archives, audio-visual (film) archives, sound archives (music & other recorded sound), photo libraries and agencies, research centres and universities.

These organisations host physical cultural objects, and may digitise them to make them more widely accessible. They also host newer, born-digital cultural items. They then contribute metadata describing their digital collection (not the materials themselves) to Europeana, along with small thumbnail preview images. Some other types of preview can be supported, such as sound clips.

Work package 4 (WP4) Public Private Partnership (WP Leader: EDItEUR, United Kingdom) was entitled to investigate the potential for including commercial products in the Europeana Portal, adding the gift shop to European Union's GLAM Web sites, and to explore the state of the art in the management of metadata in the private sector (For further information, see: Linked Heritage: outline of the work packages).

Contributors can optionally join the voluntary Europeana Network of metadata providers and heritage / information technology experts.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: Public-Private Partnership with Europeana and Why and how to contribute to Europeana.

See also: Content provider, GLAM, Private sector

The term data refers to electronically-stored information or recording, including but not limited to documents, databases, transcripts, and audio/visual recordings.

In the context of the Linked Heritage aggregation and Europeana, the term data is generally referred to as metadata.

See also: Content, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA), Data set, Metadata

The terms under which Europeana and its users can make use of previews and descriptive metadata are established by the Europeana Data Exchange Agreement (DEA). The DEA is the central component of the Europeana Licensing Framework. It structures the relationship between Europeana and its data providers. As of 1 July 2012, the DEA replaced all the existing agreements between Europeana and its data providers and aggregators.

The DEA sets out two simple principles:

1) For all descriptive metadata provided to Europeana, data providers grant Europeana the right to publish the metadata under the terms of the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. This means that all metadata provided to Europeana can be re-used by third parties without any restrictions.

2) Each digital object (and the associated preview) that is available via Europeana needs to carry a rights label that describes its copyright status. Data providers grant Europeana the right to publish previews provided to Europeana. Previews may not be re-used by third parties unless the rights label related to the object allows such re-use (See: Europeana Available Rights Statements).

Source: Europeana Professional - Data Exchange Agreement

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: Why and how to contribute to Europeana and MINT Services. For a commercial perspective, see also: Public-Private Partnership with Europeana.

In the aggregation landscape of Europeana, data set (also written dataset) is a collection of structured data supplied by content providers to the European Portal, directly or by means of a content aggregator. Each data set must comprise metadata declined according to the Europeana metadata reference model (ESE / EDM).

In the context of the Linked Heritage project, data set may refer to a single collection of data as well as to a set of collections of data supplied by a single content provider.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See: Data set

See: Data Exchange Agreement (DEA)

A digital object is an entity in which one or more content files and their corresponding metadata are united, physically and/or logically, through the use of a digital wrapper. Digital objects (or digital materials) refer to any item that is available digitally.

In the context of the Europeana aggregation landscape, digital objects can be generally referred to as content. Any data about content is encoded into metadata. According to Europeana Data Exchange Agreement, each digital object (and the associated preview) that is available via Europeana needs to carry a rights label that describes its copyright status. Data providers grant Europeana the right to publish previews provided to Europeana. Previews may not be re-used by third parties unless the rights label related to the object allows such re-use (See: Europeana Available Rights Statements).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Digitisation life cycle

See also: Content, Data, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA), Metadata

See: Europeana Data Model (EDM)

See: Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE)

Europeana Network, former Council of Content Providers and Aggregators (CCPA), is an open, expert forum comprising content holders and aggregators along with providers of technical, legal and strategic knowledge. It stands as an organisation that unites all individuals who have a stake in Europeana to ensure an effective dialogue with Europeana Foundation and Office at both strategic and practical levels.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: MINT Services and Why and how to contribute to Europeana .

Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE) is an application profile based on a Dublin Core-based set of fields with additionally 12 specific europeana elements. ESE is a subset of the Europeana Data Model (EDM), a richer data model that will improve the way metadata can be provided and used in Europeana and beyond. ESE produces a flat record where it is not always possible to tell if a value applies to the original object or to its digital representation. If possible it would be better to provide data using the EDM format. All ESE data will be converted to EDM on ingestion but the conversion from ESE may not be as good as if you had provided EDM directly. Currently Europeana accepts three types of metadata, EDM – EDM, ESE – EDM or Original Format – EDM. The Europeana Ingestion team will carry out the transformation of the data and ensure material is enriched and portal ready.

MINT allows to convert LIDO metadata records into ESE. Even EDM profile is supported by MINT (see: MINT screencast EDM Ingestion Tool).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

GLAM is the sector related to Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums.

The process by which software can collect metadata packages from remote locations. By metadata harvesting it is meant the harvest of metadata records from data provider to gather metadata for query results or index creation. In the context of the Open Archive Initiative (OAI), the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) defines a mechanism for harvesting XML-formatted metadata from repositories - where repositories function as data providers that support the OAI-PMH as a means of exposing metadata, while service providers use metadata harvested via the OAI-PMH as a basis for building value-added services.

OAI-PMH is Europeana's preferred method of capturing metadata from data providers or metadata aggregators.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See also: Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)

By harvesting schema it is meant an XML schema intended to transfer data from providers collections databases to data aggregation or portals of aggregated resources such as Europeana, as well as exposing, sharing and connecting data on the web. LIDO is an XML harvesting schema.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See: LIDO, MINT

A process by which a digital object or metadata dataset is absorbed by a different system that the one that produced it.

In the context of the Linked Heritage Aggregation, the technological platform MINT Services functions as ingestor. Linked Heritage content providers can upload their datasets in XML or CSV serialization, from personal computers or using the HTTP, FTP and OAI-PMH protocols.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

Interoperability is the ability of the systems, procedures and culture of an organisation to be managed in such a way as to maximise opportunities for exchange and re-use of information, whether internally or externally. When organizations use the same set of rules for a certain activity, they can inter-operate or work together more efficiently (e.g. for creating mutual information systems such as online catalogues).

Paul Miller further divides interoperability into 6 types:

1: Technical interoperability – Facilitated by using common technical standards (e.g. file types, metadata, etc.).

2: Semantic interoperability – Facilitated by using common vocabularies for the terminologies used in data (e.g. thesauri).

3: Political/Human interoperability – Facilitated by understanding and overcoming the barrierscaused by the different experiences and agendas of users and information providers

4: Inter-community interoperability – Facilitated by recognising differences between discipline communities and overcoming them by working together (e.g. Museums, archives and libraries)

5: Legal interoperability – Facilitated by following the legal restraints imposed on informationproviders (e.g. Freedom of Information and Data Protection legislation)

6: International Interoperability – Facilitated by recognising and overcoming the barriers caused by cultural and linguistic differences.

Source: Helen Ashby – Gordon McKenna – Matthew Stiff. SPECTRUM Knowledge. London: MDA, 2001, p. 63 in ATHENA WP3 (2011), Digitisation: standards landscape for european museums, archives, libraries, p. 13.

See also: ISO, ISO norm, Standard

LIDO: Lightweight Information Describing Objects is an XML harvesting schema. It is the result of a collaborative effort of international stakeholders in the museum sector, starting in 2008, to create a common solution for contributing cultural heritage content to web applications.

LIDO is based on CIDOC-CRM Conceptual Reference Model (CRM). It comes from the integration between CDWA Lite and museumdat metadata schemas and it is based on SPECTRUM standard. Being an application of the CIDOC-CRM, it provides an explicit format to deliver (museum’s) object information in a standardised way.

LIDO is a schema intended for delivering metadata, for use in a variety of online services, from an organisation's online collections database to portals of aggregated resources, as well as exposing, sharing and connecting data on the web.

MINT implemented LIDO as intermediate harvesting schema. Initially conceived for museum sector needs, it is currently used in cross-domain contexts proving its adaptability and effectiveness in preserving the integrity of rich metadata.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See also: Aggregator, Harvesting schema, MINT

The Linked Heritage aggregation includes data from archives, museums, libraries, research centres and universities (see: Linked Heritage partners and contributors), and covers 3D models, manuscripts, ancient prints, medieval antiquities, archaeological artefacts, monuments, Greek and Latin inscriptions, fossils, ancient and modern paintings, ethnographic collections and more. According to Europeana blog, the Linked Heritage aggregation is one of Europeana's biggest aggregators.

A procedure where elements in a structured data set (e.g. in a metadata schema) are linked to elements in another data set. It is supported by crosswalks that provide a mapping of metadata elements from one metadata schema to another. Supporting the ability to retrieve the same or similar content in different data source, crosswalks support the so called semantic interoperability.

The Linked Heritage Technology Platform, MINT, implements an aggregation infrastructure offering a crosswalk mechanism to support the following critical activities:

• harvesting and aggregating metadata records whether by standard and proprietary schemas
• migrating from content providers' model to a reference model
• transforming records from the Linked Heritage model to the Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE) and the Europeana Data Model (EDM).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: MINT Services and Terminology.

Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information. According to Tim Berners-Lee's axiom "metadata is data".

The term metadata is used differently in different communities. Some use it to refer to machine understandable information, while others use it only for records that describe electronic resources. In the library environment, metadata is commonly used for any formal scheme of resource description, applying to any type of object, digital or non-digital. There are three main types of metadata: descriptive metadata, structural metadata and administrative metadata, each of them contributing to the management of information resources and help to ensure their intellectual integrity both now and in the future (See: NISO, Understanding Metadata 2004).

In the context of the Linked Heritage Aggregation, metadata describe digital objects of one of the type accepted by Europeana that will govern which facet they appear under in the portal:

• text (books, letters, archival papers, dissertations, poems, newspaper articles, facsimiles, manuscripts and music scores)

• image (paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, pictures of museum objects, maps, graphic designs, plans and musical notation)

• sound (music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts)

• video (films, news broadcasts and television programmes) and

• 3D (virtual 3D representations of objects, architecture or places).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See also: Aggregation, Content, Data, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA), Mapping

MINT: Metadata Interoperability Services composes a web-based platform that was designed and developed to facilitate aggregation initiatives for cultural heritage content and metadata in Europe.

It functions as a server for content ingestion and is based on open source software developed by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in the context of the ATHENA project. MINT allows content providers to upload, map, validate and deliver metadata to be sent to Europeana in an only web environment. The platform also provides a management system both for users and organisations that allows the deployment and operation of different aggregation schemas with corresponding user roles and access rights.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, commonly referred to as OAI-PMH or OAI protocol, is a protocol defined by the Open Archive Initiative. It provides a method for data providers to make records for their items (as a means of exposing metadata) available for harvesting by service providers that operate through a harvester.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See also: Harvesting, MINT

Schema, or scheme, also called metadata schema, is a set of metadata elements designed for a specific purpose, such as describing a particular information resource, defining a framework for representing metadata. The definition or meaning of the elements themselves is known as the semantics of the schema. The values given to metadata elements are the content. Metadata schemas generally specify names of elements and their semantics. Examples of metadata schemas are Dublin Core, ESE, EDM, PICO.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: MINT Services and Terminology.

See also: Element, Metadata

See: Preview