Europeana DSI-4 - highlights of year two and a look ahead to year three

What is the Europeana Digital Service Infrastructure?

The European Union is working to create the infrastructure that will support its citizens, sectors and public administrations in their access to digital services. It is building ‘digital bridges’, through what it calls Digital Service Infrastructures  (DSIs), to provide access to those services for the benefit of all. Europeana is the DSI that delivers services to showcase and provide online access to Europe’s digital cultural heritage.

The Europeana service is provided by a consortium of 21 partners, coordinated by the Europeana Foundation, and is funded under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). We are currently on the fourth round of DSI funding for Europeana and so our current project is named ‘Europeana DSI-4’. The second year of the DSI-4 project ended on 31 August, and so we are now embarking on the third year.

One year ends...

The coronavirus pandemic continues to affect all of us and we see that clearly in the ongoing challenges facing the cultural heritage sector. Many people are adapting to new ways of working, and we must thank all for their continued dedication and hard work, including Europeana Foundation staff, our partners and friends in the Europeana Network Association, the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum and all of the projects we are part of across the sector.

The digital transformation of the sector is accelerating, and together this year we have been exploring how the sector is reacting, and how we can build sustainable digital strategies to support it. 

An annual report for year two of Europeana DSI-4 highlights the great strides taken over the last 12 months. We’ve seen both the public-facing Europeana collections website and our site for professionals, Europeana Pro, renewed and made more accessible. We’ve seen the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum accredit a total of 38 aggregators, and develop a new aggregation strategy. And we’ve seen the Europeana Network Association come together at Europeana 2019 Connect Communities and its specialist communities, Task Forces and Working Groups continue to work together on issues common to the cultural heritage sector.

And another begins

The third and final year of Europeana DSI-4 began on 1 September. Its work takes the new Europeana Strategy 2020-2025 to heart, splitting our activities into three work areas, mapped to the three priorities in the strategy.

1: Strengthening the infrastructure. This work area makes data publishing easier, continues to improve the Europeana collections website experience, and the discoverability of the digital cultural content and ensures our products are reliable and perform well. 

2. Improving data quality. Measures improve the quality and interoperability of content and metadata and enriches them through crowdsourcing, artificial intelligence and machine-learning. 

3. Capacity building for digital transformation. Here, we develop events and training for aggregators and cultural heritage professionals. The Europeana Network Association and Europeana Aggregators’ Forum are maintained and nurtured, and specialist communities such as research grown, with Europeana Pro remaining the focal point for communications. National infrastructures are strengthened through engagement with Member States and a growing evidence bank of digital transformation activities.

An additional work package takes care of the administration and programme management elements associated with running  DSI-4.

The plan for the coming year covers work done by the Europeana Foundation, its consortium of 21 partners, plus the Europeana Network Association and Europeana Aggregators’ Forum. 

Julia Schellenberg, Europeana Foundation’s Programme Coordinator says, ‘The Europeana team look forward to the progress planned for the upcoming year and would like to express our sincere gratitude to all members of the consortium and all network members who donate their time and expertise voluntarily to make the Europeana Initiative a success.’     

If you'd like to get involved with our upcoming activities, please join the Europeana Network Association.