The Europeana Aggregators’ Forum brings together national, domain and thematic aggregators, so they can share expertise and knowledge and work as a pan-European cross-domain ecosystem. An accreditation scheme launched in 2019 by the Forum empowers aggregators to support their contributing institutions and to give those institutions greater assurances in the skills and knowledge of their aggregators, with the goal of working towards improving the quality of data in Europeana.eu.
Four newly accredited aggregators
We are delighted to announce that four aggregators have recently completed their accreditations. This brings the total number of accredited aggregators to 37.
Congratulations to:
Latvian National E-content Aggregator which brings together Latvian cultural heritage content with historical value.
Czech Digital Library which aggregates Czech literature from the 19th century to the modern day.
Digital Repository of Ireland which brings together Irish contemporary and historical cultural heritage.
Formula Aggregation Service of the National Library of Finland which is a national aggregator collecting cultural heritage objects from Finnish institutions.
Henning Scholz, Partner and Operations Manager for the Europeana Foundation says, ‘We’re really pleased to add these four aggregators to our accredited partners. The scheme has been a very positive step for the aggregation ecosystem - we list accredited partners on Europeana Pro so it’s easy to see who has reached our aggregator standards. Cultural heritage institutions can see who these trusted partners are and work with them, getting help, advice and support for their digital transformations.’
See full list of accredited aggregators
Getting accredited
Any aggregator, whether large or small, national, domain or thematic, is eligible to apply for Europeana aggregator accreditation.
To become an accredited aggregator, partners need to commit to fulfilling a range of responsibilities, including providing appropriate information to us about who they collect data from, committing to helping those institutions to improve their data and actively participating in the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum.
Aggregators wishing to be accredited must apply to the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum, agreeing with and committing to the required responsibilities. Then they submit a test dataset and ultimately sign the Data Exchange Agreement or make sure that each of its data providers do so. Accreditation status is reviewed by the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum at least once a year.
Benefits of accreditation
Accredited Europeana aggregators enjoy the following benefits (in addition to the general benefits of working with Europeana):
Membership of the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum (EAF), including travel reimbursement for attending EAF meetings
One vote in decisions taken by the EAF
Greater visibility of aggregator - profile published on a dedicated page on Europeana Pro
Accredited aggregators act as representatives of the Europeana initiative when working with cultural heritage institutions
Use of EAF logo to identify accredited aggregators as trusted partners
Being an accredited aggregator for Europeana could also be of benefit in grant applications, advocacy, and recognition by cultural ministries.
Marco Rendina, Chair of the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum, says,
‘The EAF accreditation scheme finally gives aggregators a formal recognition of their capacity and reliability, acknowledging their crucial role in the Europeana ecosystem. At the same time, it gives cultural heritage institutions the ability to identify trusted partners that can support them in contributing to the Europeana initiative and in their digital transformation.’
Are you interested in becoming an accredited aggregator for Europeana? Email [email protected].