APENet and EUROPEANA: Digitization Issues in the European Context

APENet and EUROPEANA: Digitization Issues in the

European Context

RAMS Zadar, 2013

Archives in digital world

- majority of currently existing activities in archives aim to meet challenges facing archives as a result of the ongoing changes in society, economy and technology

- this is why majority of projects encompass implementation of professional standards and practical technical solutions, as well as their integration and interoperability.

- contemporary trends and initiatives regarding archival cooperation in Europe – interoperability, networking integration, sharing resources, implementation of standards

Archives in digital world

- establishing a network and setting a framework for archival cooperation in Europe builds the basis for creating high-quality digital content that will be integrated into portals such as APEnet or Europeana

- activities: digitizing and indexing, integrating digital content into existing national and supranational portals, creating online access to Euopean written heritage, developing standards for indexing archival collections,…

- issues concerning digitalization in archives mostly refer to technical problems, choosing records for digitization, its organization and presentation, as well as availability

EU Archival Policy

APENet Project

APENet Project

- first objective was to build an „Internet Gateway for Documents and Archives in Europe” as a common access point to European archival descriptions and digital collections

- In February 2012 it offered: more than 14,5 milion descriptive units availble, more than 2 million of them providing further link to digital documents, cca. 64 millions digitized documents, information on archival institutions and many more …

APEx – the Archives Portal Europe network of excellence

– framework for European archives to collaborate for wider and enhanced accessibility of their content on the web

-it continues the work of the APEnet project (2009–2012) in which 19 European national archives and Europeana established and released the Archives Portal Europe-with the continued expansion and enhancement of the APE– in terms of participating countries and institutions, plus available content and services – APEx will contribute to the development of a coherent digital infrastructure which opens up the portal to our common cultural heritage of archives, equally accessible for citizens, researchers, businesses and governments alike

APEx Project

• APEx is structured into 8 Work Packages:

WP1. Project Management

WP2. Europeana Interoperability

WP3. InfrastructureDevelopment & Hosting

WP4. Standards & Guidelines

WP5. Tools & Support

WP6. Usability & Web 2.0

WP7. Dissemination & Training

WP8. Sustainability

• the Archives Portal Europe provides access to information on archival material from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent.

• the main goal is to meet users' expectations by providing seamless access to various archival resources held throughout Europe

• to achieve this, the project team developed a common European EAD-XML schema, that will act as a pivotal format additionally enabling the Archives Portal Europe to deliver standardised data to Europeana 

Data retrival

APE Search Facilities

APE Search Facilities

Archival content at APE

• Archival landscape - Directory

• Finding aids

• Holdings guides

• Source guides

• Digitized documents

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana

Archival material in Europeana