The Europeana Data Model (EDM) was created to address limitations of the earlier Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE) model. EDM preserves original metadata while allowing for interoperability using semantic web standards like RDF. It represents cultural objects and related information using classes, properties, and links to external vocabularies. EDM enables richer semantic enrichment and connections between objects than was possible in ESE. It is being implemented in Europeana's linked open data prototype to replace the ESE-based system.