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A

Aggregator

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


API


Application programming interface (API)

Application programming interface (API) is a set of rules and specifications, embedded in source code, which software programs can use to communicate with each other.

In the context of Europeana, Europeana API are application programming interfaces for the purpose of searching and retrieving the metadata offered by Europeana on Europeana.eu. The Europeana API allows to build applications, websites and mashups that include a customised view of Europeana content.


ATHENA

ATHENA: access to cultural heritage networks across Europe (2008-2011) - presented as a Best Practice Network within the eContentplus Programme - takes its origins from the existing MINERVA network.

The final aim of ATHENA is to bring together relevant stakeholders and content owners from all over Europe, evaluate and integrate standards and specific tools, based on a common agreed set of standards and guidelines, to create harmonised access to their content and for facilitating the inclusion of new digital content into Europeana, so conveying to the user the original and multifaceted experience of all the European cultural heritage.

ATHENA is a sister project of Linked Heritage (see also: APEnet, ARROW, AthenaPlus).

Explore further: Athenawiki.

See also: Best practice network (BPN)


B

Best practice network (BPN)

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).


C

CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

The person who associated a work with the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

According to Europeana Data Exchange Agreement, 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.

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

See also: Data Exchange Agreement (DEA)

 


Classification

Classifications are originally specific to library science and mainly used for cataloguing: a classification is a system of coding and organizing the knowledge. Classifications don't allow assigning an object to several classes while thesauri allow assigning several terms to one object. The term classification can be interchangeable with the term taxonomy (See: Athenawiki - Definitions).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology.

See also: Controlled vocabulary, Information retrieval, Terminology, Thesaurus


Collection


Content

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


Content provider

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


Controlled vocabulary

A controlled vocabulary is an established list of standardised terminology for use in indexing and retrieval of information. The list must be conceived as a structured list of descriptors explicitly enumerated. Each descriptor is a preferred term with an unambiguous and non-redundant definition, controlled by and available from a controlled vocabulary registration authority. Descriptors in a controlled vocabulary can have hierarchical, equivalent or associative relations. A controlled vocabulary is managed by an authority, which can be a thesaurus manager or a centralized organization responsible for managing the vocabulary. Controlled vocabularies allow a standardized way of indexing collections in a local database or online catalogue. It is also a powerful tool for web search queries and for sharing data on the web. Glossaries, thesauri, classification systems/taxonomies and subject headings, ontologies, are types of controlled vocabularies. They are also referred to as authority lists.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology.

See also: Information retrieval, Terminology


Cultural / Public heritage institution

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, GLAMPrivate sector


D

Data

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


Data Exchange Agreement (DEA)

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.


Data provider


Data set

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.


Dataset

See: Data set


DEA


Digital object

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


Digital preservation

Digital preservation can be understood as the series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary, involving the planning, resource allocation, and application of preservation methods and technologies to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable. It combines policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Digitisation life cycle.


Digitisation

Digitisation (or Digitising) is the representation of an object, image, sound, document or a signal (usually an analog signal) by a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called digital representation or, more specifically, a digital image, for the object, and digital form, for the signal. Strictly speaking, digitizing means simply capturing an analog signal in digital form. For a document the term means to trace the document image or capture the "corners" where the lines end or change direction.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Digitisation life cycle.


E

EDItEUR

EDItEUR (UK) is the international group coordinating development of the standards infrastructure for electronic commerce in the book, e-book and serials sectors. EDItEUR provides its membership with research, standards and guidance in such diverse areas as: Electronic data interchange (EDI) and other e-commerce standards for book and serial transactions; bibliographic and product information: the standards infrastructure for digital publishing;  rights management and trading; radio frequency identification tags.

Established in 1991, EDItEUR is a truly international organisation with over 100 members from 22 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, United States and most of the European countries.

EDItEUR is member of the Linked Heritage consortium covering the role of WP4 Leader where it actively participates to implement the ONIX mapping. In the context of the training and dissemination activities in WP7, EDItEUR designed two learning objects: Public-Private Partnership with Europeana and Persistent Identifiers: commercial and heritage views.


EDM


Element

A discrete component of metadata, or a discrete component of a data structure defined by a DTD (Document type definition) or schema (often represented through markup in the form of a tag). An element may contain subelements that are called qualifiers in Dublin Core.


ESE


Europeana

Europeana is the European Commission's flagship digital cultural heritage portal. It can be found at: www.Europeana.eu. It is a central discovery and access point for European historical, social, cultural and artistic materials that have been made available online in digital form by (mainly) cultural / public heritage institutions. Freely accessible to the public, and entirely publiccaly funded, Europeana itself primarily aims to offer:


Europeana Data Model (EDM)

The Europeana Data Model (EDM) was designed to replace the Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE). EDM will gradually make Europeana fit within a networked data environment. It is a much more flexible and precise model than ESE, and offers the opportunity to attach every statement to the specific resource it applies to, and to reflect some basic form of data provenance. The main EDM requirements include:

  • distinguishing between a provided item (painting, book) and its digital representations
  • distinguishing between an item and the metadata record describing it
  • allowing the ingestion of multiple records for the same item, which may contain contradictory statements about it

As a consequence of EDM having to meet these requirements, EDM data has a level of complexity above that which Europeana currently maintains. This level of complexity is comparable to what can be found in the data of many Europeana providers, and thus, it enables better exploitation of that data. Note also that, as much as possible, EDM re-uses elements coming from already-established vocabularies, such as Dublin Core, OAI-ORE, SKOS and CIDOC-CRM, thus lowering the cost of its creation and adoption.

For more information on EDM, you can refer to the EDM Definition and EDM Primer on Europeana's technical documents page. The EDM OWL ontology is accessible through content negotiation but it is also directly available. Please be aware that both data.europeana.eu and those documents are under constant revision. 

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See also: Web Ontology Language (OWL)


Europeana Network

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 Professional

Europeana Professional is the common website for Europeana projects, reaching cultural heritage professionals and technologists. It is the official source for technical information, metadata standards and case studies, and also brings together all project work.


Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE)

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, EDMEDM, ESEEDM 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.


EuropeanaConnect

EuropeanaConnect (May 2009 - October 2011) is a Best Practice Network funded by the European Commission within the area of Digital Libraries of the eContentplus Programme. The project developed essential components to enable Europeana to become a truly interoperable, multilingual and user-friendly service. Users can access millions of images, books, maps, video, historic writings and audio files representing Europe's cultural diversity. All publicly available reports produced by the project and presentations relating to its work can be found at EuropeanaConnect: Results and resources.

EuropeanaConnect delivered technical key components such as: the Europeana Semantic Layer; Multilinguality; Front end components - User-friendly interfaces; Europeana Licensing Framework; Audio Aggregation;

The project was coordinated by the Austrian National Library. It started on 1 May 2009 and will run for 30 months until October 2011.


G

GLAM

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


Glossary

A glossary is an alphabetical list of terms of a specific domain where each term has a definition or an explanation. The glossary, despite some common features, is not a dictionary or a lexicon. It often concerns a very specific or technical domain and is generally dedicated to non-experts for giving definition of very technical terms in a simplified way. A glossary could be multilingual (See: Athenawiki - Definitions).

See also: Controlled vocabulary, Terminology


H

Harvesting

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)


Harvesting schema

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


I

Information retrieval

Information retrieval is the activity of obtaining information using information retrieval systems. These systems can be collection databases, library indexing files, web browsers etc. Searches can be based on metadata or on full-text (or other content-based) indexing. Studies on information retrieval focus mainly on the effectiveness of applications specifically developed for information management and retrieval, such as controlled vocabularies in databases.


Ingestion

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.


Ingestor


Intellectual property rights (IPR)

The term "Intellectual Property Rights" (IPR) refers to the legal rights granted with the aim to protect the creations of the intellect. These rights include Industrial Property Rights (e.g. patents, industrial design rights and trademarks) and Copyright (right of the author or creator) and Related Rights (rights of the performers, producers and broadcasting organisations) (See: The European IPR Helpdesk).

See also: Data Exchange Agreement (DEA)


Interoperability

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


ISO

ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. It is the world's largest developer of voluntary international standard composed of representatives from various national standards organisations.

International standards give state of the art specifications for products, services and good practice, helping to make industry more efficient and effective. Developed through global consensus, they help to break down barriers to international trade.

Founded on 23 February 1947, the organisation promotes worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Since then ISO has published more than 19,500 international standards covering almost all aspects of technology and business.

See also: Interoperability, ISO norm, Standard


ISO norm

ISO norms are created by the International Organization for Standardization. The organization has published more than nineteen thousand international standards covering all aspects of technology and business. The standards are developed by topic, such as information and documentation. They are written and supervised by a committee of experts and offer internationally acclaimed rules and procedures. The ISO 25964-1:2011 (part 1) for example, contains valuable information on thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies.

See also: Interoperability, ISO, Standard


L

LIDO

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


Linked data

Linked data is a pattern for hyperlinking machine-readable data sets to each other using Semantic Web techniques, especially via the use of RDF and URIs. Enables distributed SPARQL queries of the data sets and a browsing or discovery approach to finding information (as compared to a search strategy). Linked Data is intended for access by both humans and machines. Linked Data uses the RDF family of standards for data interchange (e.g., RDF/XML, RDFa, Turtle) and query (SPARQL). If Linked Data is published on the public Web, it is generally called Linked Open Data (See: W3C Government Linked Data Working Group: Linked data Glossary).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Linking Cultural Heritage Information.

See also: Linked open data, Linking open data cloud, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Semantic Web


Linked Heritage aggregation

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.


Linked open data

Linked open data (LOD) is a growing movement for organisations to make their existing data available in a machine-readable format. This enables users to create and combine data set and to make their own interpretations of data available in digestible formats and applications. LOD is all about opening up information and data as well as making it possibile to use and reuse it.

LOD is domain-independent.

LOD drive the following 10 principles:

1.: Data must be complete

2.: Data must be primary

3.: Data must be timely

4.: Data must be accessible

5.: Data must be machine-processable

6.: Access must be non-discriminatory

7.: Data formats must be non-proprietary

8.: Data must be license-free

9.: Permanance

10.: Usage costs

The 5 stars by Sir Tim Berners-Lee:

1.: Information is available on the Web (any format) under an open license

2.: Informationis available as structered data (e.g. Excel instead of an image scan of a atable)

3.: Non-proprietary formats are used (e.g CSV instead of Excel)

4.: URI identification is used so that people can point at an individual data

5.: Data is linked to other data to provide context.

Data represent "things" (known as resources) that can can be anything, including: objects, archival material, books and other document types, media files, places, persons, and organisations, events and concepts (such as material, colour, and style). RDF is the standard in linked data used to describe the "things".

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Linking Cultural Heritage Information.

See also: Linked data, Linking open data cloud, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Semantic Web


Linking open data cloud

Linking open data cloud is a group that catalogs data sets that are available on the Web as Linked Data and contain data links pointing at other Linked Data sets. These data sets have been published as Linked Data by contributors to the Linking Open Data community project and other individuals and organisations. The catalog of the LOD cloud data sets is hosted by Datahub, the free, powerful data management platform from the Open Knowledge Foundation, based on the CKAN data management system. It is used to generate the Linking Open Data Cloud diagram maintained by Richard Cyganiak (DERI, NUI Galway) and Anja Jentzsch (HPI). The LOD cloud data set catalog is also used to generate the statistics provided in the State of the LOD Cloud document.

Currently the LOD Cloud consists of 340 data sets.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Linking Cultural Heritage Information.

See also: Linked data, Linked open data


M

Machine-readable

Machine-readable is defined by  the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) as any "format in a standard computer language (not English text) that can be read automatically by a web browser or computer system. (e.g.; xml)."

Machine-readable data is data (or metadata) which is in a format that can be understood by a computer. There are two types: human-readable data that is marked up so that it can also be read by machines (examples; microformats, RDFa) or data file formats intended principally for machines (RDF, XML, JSON).

Publishing public data in an open, standard, machine-readable format is a best practice (good operating practice).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Linking cultural heritage information.

See also: Data, Linked data, Linked open data, Metadata, Semantic Web


Mapping

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:

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


Metadata

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

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.


O

Ontology

An ontology is a formal representation of a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. Ontologies are the main kind of resource used for the Semantic Web or knowledge management as a knowledge representation. The concepts are linked together by hierarchical relationships in one hand and semantic relationships in another hand (See: Athenawiki - Definitions).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology.

See also: Semantic Web, Terminology, Web Ontology Language (OWL)


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

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


OWL


P

Persistent identifier

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) can refer to all the information associated with a real object, including its location, or to any of its potential surrogates, e.g. digital images, a museum collection where it belongs, research documents referring to it and other services. PIDs may be applied to real objects as well as to more abstract concepts like services, transformation issues, aggregation or disaggregation of objects and organizations.

PID functional requirements are the following: uniqueness, persistency, resolvability, reliability, authoritativeness, flexibility, interoperability and cost effectiveness.

Noted persistent identifier systems include: Archival Resource Keys (ARKs), Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs), Uniform Resource Names (URNs), and Extensible Resource Identifiers (XRIs)

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: Persistent Identifier: What if? and Persistent Identifiers: Commercial and heritage views.

See also: Interoperability


Preview

A preview, or thumbnail preview image, is a reduced size or length audio and/or visual representation of content, in the form of one or more images, text files, audio files, and/or moving images.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object MINT Services and, for Europeana purposes, the document Europeana Portal Image Policy.

See also: Content, Content provider, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA), Data set, Digital object


Private sector

In the context of the Linked Heritage Project, by private sector (interchangeable with commercial sector) it is meant any organisations involved in creating and selling a media product such as: book publishing, recorded music, film and tv, photography.

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).

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


Public domain

By public domain it is meant any content, metadata or other subject matter not protected by Intellectual Property Rights and/or subject to a waiver of Intellectual Property Rights (See: DEA, Art. 1 Definitions).

Europeana has worked with Creative Commons to develop a simple mark that indicates that a work is in the public domain - the Public Domain Mark (PDM). Note that PDM and CC0 Public Domain Dedication state different rights: PDM can be applied to objects that are not subject to copyright either because copyright has expired (e.g. the author died many years ago) or because the object was never subject to such rights and is therefore in the public domain; the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication can be applied to objects or data that is subject to copyright but where the rights holder wants to waive the rights and dedicate the object to the public domain. It can only be applied by the rights holder or someone who is authorised by the rights holder. CC0 is specifically designed for use with (meta) data sets and is unlikely to be used as a rights statement describing content. In the context of Europeana, CC0 is primarily used to ensure that metadata can be used without any restrictions. The CC0 waiver is automatically applied to all metadata that is being provided to Europeana.

Explore further: Europeana and the Public Domain

See also: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA)


Q

Query

A query is a search in a search engine of a local database, online catalogue, web browser etc.


R

RDF


Resource Description Framework (RDF)

Resource Description Framework, in short RDF, is a family of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications originally designed as a metadata data model. It has come to be used as a general method for conceptual description or modeling of information that is implemented in web resources, using a variety of syntax notations and data serialization formats.

RDF is based on the principle of object and subject and the relation between them. The relation is a predicate. Object, subject and predicate are RDF triples. SKOS, developed to express knowledge information systems such as controlled vocabularies and exchangeable in RDF, is completely built on triples.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology.

See also: OWL, Semantic Web, SKOS


S

Schema

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

 


Semantic Web

The Semantic Web, also referred to as the Web of Data, can be defined as a group of methods and technologies to allow machine  (application) to understand the meaning (or "semantics") of information (data) on the Web. According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), "The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries", to achieve better search results, irrespective of language. This can be done by automatically linking “separate” data on the web. When every concept is interlinked as an equivalent, synonym, broader or narrower concept or via any other relator, the web can optimize search results. This will engage greater visibility and easier access to information. The term was coined by Tim Berners-Lee for a web of data that can be processed by machines.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: Terminology and Linking Cultural Heritage Information

See also: Linked data, Linked open data, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), XML


Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)

SKOS or Simple Knowledge Organization System is a formal data model developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to enhance linked open data in the (semantic) web. It is a standard that translates knowledge information systems such as thesauri, classification systems etc. in RDF-triples (SKOS/RDF). Controlled vocabularies structure information via hierarchical, equivalence and associative relations and contain scope notes, translations and other additional information on specific terms. This information can be made accessible on the web when the controlled vocabulary is converted to SKOS. In SKOS the term and all the information it contains is expressed in URIs. This is why in SKOS they are called concepts. In a controlled vocabulary, the term is important, whereas in SKOS, the URI is important. URIs form the basis of linked data on the web.

Conversion to SKOS requires some technical knowledge of RDF and SKOS. This is why the Linked Heritage and AthenaPlus projects developed a Terminology Management Platform (TMP), an open-source tool where controlled vocabularies can be imported and link them to other resources using SKOS.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: Terminology and Linking Cultural Heritage Information.

See also: Controlled vocabulary, Linked data, Linked open data, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Semantic Web, Terminology Management Platform (TMP)


SKOS


Standard

Standards help to make life simpler and to increase the reliability and the effectiveness of many goods and services we use. Standards are created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators of a particular material, product, process or service." To the advantages given above delivering interoperability can be added.

Standards typologies comprise the following:

1: De facto: standards not formally recognised by a standards setting body, but widely used and recognised by the sector using them as a standard
2: De iure: standards formally recognised by a standards setting body (e.g. ISO). They are developed by the common consent of a group of interested parties, with no one party being dominant. They can take a significant amount to time to develop and establish, sometimes leading to them being over-taken by technological developments
3: In-house: standards developed and used in a particular organisation, for a particular purpose (e.g.: a local place name terminology)
4: Community: standards developed by a set of organisations in the same sector for use within that sector (e.g.: the UK museum documentation standard SPECTRUM developed and mantained by Collection Trust)
5: National: standards developed for use within a single country and recognised at a national level (e.g.: nationally standards terminologies)
6: International: standards recognised and used throughout the world, nearly always approved by an international standards setting body (e.g. ISO 8601 - Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard for date and time).

Note that for some standards it is possible for them to begin as one type and then, with further work and taking part in an approval process, become another type. For example the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM), was originally developed by the CIDOC Documentation Standards Working Group, as a community standard; it is now an ISO standard (ISO 21127:2006). Another type of standard is the open standard.

Source: ATHENA WP3 (2011), Digitisation: standards landscape for european museums, archives, libraries, pp. 7-12

See also: Interoperability, ISO, ISO norm


T

Terminology

Generally speaking, terminology refers to the study of words and how they are used. In the context of the Linked Heritage Project, the term terminology stands for a general concept for different types of controlled vocabularies: simple list of terms, glossary, classification and taxonomy, thesaurus, ontology and so on. The type of vocabulary is highly connected to its purpose (indexing, information retrieval systems, translation, ...). To make terminologies interoperable and optimize their exploitation on the Web, specifically in the so called Semantic Web, terminologies need to use controlled vocabularies, to be published in SKOS/RDF formats, to be mappable to other terminological resources.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology.

See also: Controlled vocabulary, Interoperability, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Semantic Web, SKOS, Terminology Management Platform (TMP)


Terminology Management Platform (TMP)

The Terminology Management Platform, short TMP, is a tool box for creating, editing and managing thesaurus, classifications, subject headings, ontology and any other kind of terminology. This platform is mainly dedicated to cultural institutions from any sector (Libraries Archives and Museums) who hold or are willing to create terminologies.

The overall terminology workflow – elaborated in the context of the ATHENA Project - comprises the following steps: 1. Registration 2. SKOSification (i.e. conversion into SKOS) 3. Search/Navigation 4. Mapping 5. Enrichment 6. Collaborative moderation. TMP supports cultural heritage institutions to upload, register and SKOSify the terminologies first, before proceeding to the next steps. Moreover TMP offers the possibility for an institution to make sharable its terminology in an exchangeable format to the community and Europeana. TMP allows to manage terminologies according to Europeana ingestion rules, and to collaborately create a network of interlinked multilingual terminologies in a Europeana compliant format (SKOS).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology


Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a type of controlled vocabulary. It is considered the most elaborate form of vocabulary, as it contains a large amount of information. Terms in thesauri are related to each other by hierarchical, equivalent and/or associative relations. A hierarchical relation means that one term is considered broader or narrower than another, expressing for example a sort of relation: a guitar is considered a narrower term of a musical instrument because a guitar is a sort of musical instrument. It is a vertical relation. An equivalent relation means that several terms are considered equal, but one term is to be preferred to another. For example, house and dwelling are synonyms, but in a thesaurus one term will be preferred and the other will be alternative. This relation is horizontal. An associative relation represents non-direct relations: the term is not a narrower nor a broader term, nor is it a synonym, but there is a relation anyhow. Guitar can be a narrower term of musical instruments and guitar tabs can be a narrower term of sheet music. Even though they do not have a parent-child relationship, guitar can be linked to guitar tabs via an associative relation.

Terms in a thesaurus are considered unique and can have a unique identification number (reused in a URI). Their meaning and use are described in scope notes.

In the SKOS-model, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), terms in a thesaurus are considered concepts. This is because, in SKOS, not the term is important, but its hierarchical, equivalent and associative relations, as well as all the additional information it contains, expressed in URIs. A term refers to the lexical string of syllables and vowels, whereas a concept refers to a unit of thought expressed in a formal computer language. Because of the formal characteristics of concepts, language barriers can be overcome when linking and retrieving resources (See: Athenawiki - Definitions).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology.

See also: Controlled vocabulary, Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), Terminology, Terminology Management Platform (TMP)


Thumbnail

See: Preview


TMP


U

Uniform resource identifier

Uniform resource identifier, in short URI, is the syntax for all names/addresses that refer to resources on the World Wide Web. Upon standard such as URI, it is built Linked data.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: Linking Cultural Heritage Information and Terminology.

See also: Linked data, Linked open data, Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)

 


URI


W

Web Ontology Language (OWL)

The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies. The languages are characterised by formal semantics and RDF/XML-based serializations for the Semantic Web. OWL is endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and has attracted academic, medical and commercial interest. OWL is based on the RDF specification.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Terminology

See also: Ontology, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Semantic Web


Work Package (WP)

EU-Funded projects, like Linked Heritage Project, have always had precise plans comprised of interdependent work segments known as work packages. A work package is a major sub-division of the proposed project with a verifieable end-point - normally a deliverable in the overall project.  Work Packages should follow the logical phases of the implementation of the project, and include consortium management, performance monitoring and evaluation, awareness and dissemination activities, as well as technical work (See: ICT PSP Guide for Applicants 2013 – Best Practice Network. Version 7 – 21st Dec 2012).

Linked Heritage features 7 work packages (WP):

WP1 Project management and Coordination (WP Leader: ICCU, Italy)

WP2 Linking Cultural Heritage Information (WP Leader: Collections Trust, United Kingdom)

WP3 Terminology (WP Leader: Royal Museum of Arts and History, Belgium)

WP4 Public Private Partnership (WP Leader: EDItEUR, United Kingdom)

WP5 Technical Integration (WP Leader: Institute of Computer and Communication Systems - National Technical University of Athens, Greece)

WP6 Coordination of Content (WP Leader: The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus)

WP7 Dissemination & Training (WP Leader: Università di Padova, Italy)

Explore further: Linked Heritage Documents and deliverables


X

XML

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It is a meta markup language consisting in a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. XML is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all free to use open standards.
XML’s design goals emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability over the Internet. It is a textual data format, with strong support via Unicode for the languages and scripts of the world. RDF/XML is an application of XML, created to express (i.e. serialize) RDF as an XML-document. XML is now widely used.

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



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