This 3-year project called Europeana Cloud is coordinated by The European Library and funded by the EU. It involves 35 partners across Europe working to build a new aggregation system using a shared, cloud-based infrastructure. This will allow richer metadata and greater use of content. The project aims to help aggregators by creating flexible data processing, transparent monitoring, and third party enrichment capabilities. Initial testing of the new infrastructure will involve The European Library, Polish Digital Libraries Federation, and Europeana as partners. The timeline outlines developing the technical infrastructure by mid-2014 and deploying the new system as a sustainable service by early 2016.

1. Essential Facts
Name, title
Date

2. 3-year project
…………………………………………………….............
Coordinated by The European Library
and running until January 2016.
Funded by the EU
………………………………………………………..…...........
Total project cost of 4.75 million euros (80% from
the EU under the ICT-PSP programme).

3. 35 Partners
Sweden:
Gothenburg
University
Finland: Finnish
National Archives
Denmark: Royal Library
and National Library of
Copenhagen University
Ireland:
Trinity
College
Dublin
United Kingdom: MDR
Partners, National Library of
Wales, The Open University,
University College London,
University of Edinburgh
The Netherlands: Europeana, The European
Library, CERL, LIBER, OAPEN, KNAW,
Kennisland, Free University of Amsterdam,
Tilburg University
Belgium: Ariadne Foundation,
Catholic University of Leuven,
Free University of Brussels
Poland: Polish
Digital Libraries
Foundation
Germany: Bavarian State
Library, Central and East
European Online Library, Open
Knowledge Foundation
Deutschland, University of
Bielefeld, DARIAH
Italy: National Research
Council, Cinecitta’ Luce Spa
Spain: Dialnet
Foundation
Czech Republic: National
Technical Library
Hungary:
University of
Debrecen
Romania:
University
of Sibiu
Croatia: Croatian
Academy for Science
& Arts
Greece: University of Patras,
Athena Research and
Innovation Centre

4. Together, we’re on a mission.
We want to help the Europeana
ecosystem by:
Making the metadata richer
Getting more people to use that
metadata and the related content
Giving aggregators and data
providers a cheaper, more
sustainable infrastructure for
storing metadata and content
National Library of France, Public Domain

5. Helping aggregators and data providers.
We aim to create:
Flexible and scalable data
processing facilities
More transparent monitoring
and costing
Ability for third parties to enrich
your metadata (eg. find place
names, convert formats)
Change tracking, versioning
support and globally unique
identifiers
A workspace for aggregation
partners
National Library of Wales, CC BY-NC-SA

6. We have 3 main tasks
Wellcome Library, CC BY-NC

7. 1. Building a new aggregation system.
Metadata currently travels in one direction, towards Europeana.
Libraries
National
Aggregators
e.g. The
European
Library
Regional
Aggregators
Archives
e.g.
Culture
Grid,
Culture.fr
Audiovisual collections
Thematic collections
e.g. APEX
e.g. EUScreen,
European Film
Gateway
e.g. Musées
Lausannois
e.g. Judaica Europeana,
Europeana Fashion

8. Our alternative is a shared, cloud-based
infrastructure.
 This would allow members
of Europeana Cloud to:
1.Upload metadata
2.Define who can use that
metadata and in what ways
(download, annotate, delete)
3.Give third parties access
via APIs

9. It will include version control…
 All versions have
their own unique
IDs
 Provider Local IDs
and Europeana
Cloud IDs are
mapped to each
other
 You keep full
control of your
version in
Europeana Cloud

10. …and will be built on a Hybrid-cloud structure.
 We will be able to
access public-cloud
services on demand.
 This will allow us to
quickly adapt to
changes in workload.
 We can also shift
resources to the public
if this would save us
money.
 The non-public part of
We will develop
tools to manage
resource
reallocation and
data transfers
between the two
cloud types.
our cloud will be
Community based.
 Users will access it via
an API from systems
installed in their data
centres.
 Advantages: technically
robust, potential for
high efficiency gains
and savings

11. Initially, three aggregators will test this
new infrastructure.
The European Library
………………………………………………………………..........................
Contributing 120m bibliographic records and 20m
metadata items. www.theeuropeanlibrary.org
Polish Digital Libraries Federation
…………………………………………………………….............
Contributing 1.5m metadata items.
........
www.fbc.pionier.net.pl
Europeana
………………………………………………………………..................................
Contributing 30m metadata items.
.
www.europeana.eu

12. 2. Defining the principles of engagement.
 We’re working on a number of
structural and legal issues. For
example:
1. A business model to ensure
economic viability.
2. A revised legal framework.
3. Working out the rules for
membership of eCloud
4. A roadmap (integrated with
Europeana’s strategic plan) that
outlines how to attract partners
National Library of France, Public Domain

13. 3. Developing Europeana Research
 APIs will allow third parties to
build on top of data in eCloud
1. Europeana Research - set of thirdparty tools exploiting data in
eCloud
2. Focus on research communities in
arts, humanities and social
sciences
3. Partners in- and outside the
project will contribute metadata
(and content as well) to be part of
eCloud and the tools
National Library of France, Public Domain

14. Timeline
Prototype of
content cloud
created (M18).
Prototype of
metadata cloud
created (M12).
2013
Minimum
requirements
outlined (M10).
Technical
Infrastructure
Complete (M30).
Governance
structure
complete (M28).
2014
Operating Principles
determined (M18).
2015
Europeana
Research
unveiled
(M36).
2016
eCloud
deployed as
sustainable
service (M36).

15. Thanks for
listening!
Learn more
about our project:
Digitalt Museum, CC BY-NC-ND
@europeana_cloud
#cloud_EU
www.pro.europeana.eu/web/europeana.cloud