According to the European Commission in an assessment report published on Thursday 6 September, the European digital library of cultural heritage project, Europeana, should be continued, given its good results.
The platform was launched 10 years ago to allow free access to European cultural heritage by way of a single access point (see EUROPE 9786). The library brought together all member states in this enterprise, which helps to conserve and promote European culture in the digital age.
10 years later, the European Commission is examining the endeavour. On the basis of several independent studies and a public consultation, it is identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the programme.
Overall, the Commission considers that the platform is a relevant tool for accessing and distributing online European cultural heritage because Europeana has exceeded its objectives in terms of the quantity of the objects listed. Europeana effectively provides one of the biggest digital collections in the world, with a catalogue of more than 51 million objects from collections from more than 700 libraries, archives, museums, galleries and audiovisual collections in Europe. These are accessible by way of its digital portal and programme application interfaces.
Nonetheless, the Commission points out that the relevance and quality of its content and metadata do have some problems. The main problems are linked to the content and involve geographical and thematic cover, the representation of institutions and the appropriateness of the content. With regard to metadata, the lack of translations, quality and level of detail, incoherencies and defective links have been highlighted. The problems relating to metadata have had a negative impact on the overall popularity of the service as well as an effect on the visibility of the catalogue and its use.
The Commission has also identified weaknesses in the platform's technical infrastructure. Research features fail to meet target users’ expectations. The Commission considers that the efficiency of the complicated aggregation process and funding system for Europeana could also be improved.
The report can be seen at the following link https://bit.ly/2wNkm6U (Original version French by Sophie Petitjean)