Three Case Studies From Europeana Partners Discuss Use of API, Pinterest, and Twitter

The following case studies (first presented at a open data case studies workshop in late January) and were recently shared on the Europeana Professional blog.
1. Europeana API Implementation in Polish Digital Libraries (Blog Post) (Blog Post)
Direct to Full Text Case Study (6 pages; PDF) 

Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) have been working with Polish cultural heritage institutions for more than 10 years. This cooperation has primarily focused on putting the institutions’ digitised collections online, mostly for educational and research use.
The first outcomes of this cooperation were available online in 2002. In 2009, we started working with Europeana, appreciating its importance and strategic potential to promote Polish cultural heritage all over Europe and make it even more accessible and re-usable.
In 2010, when the pilot programme for the Europeana API was announced, we had an idea that, if properly used, an automated way of accessing aggregated data could significantly increase the visibility of European cultural heritage among the users of Polish digital libraries.

2. Europeana & Partners on Pinterest
Direct to Full Text Case Study (8 pages; PDF)

Between May and June of 2012, Europeana began to explore the potential of Pinterest as a platform for end-user engagement. The aims: to connect partner institutions with emerging social platforms, and end-users with cultural heritage content in innovative ways. By joining forces with the University of Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, the Swedish National Heritage Board, Varna Public Library and the Swedish Royal Armoury, Europeana presented content outside the constraints of the portal and institutional websites – providing new visibility and interaction with collections that might otherwise remain unseen. We were curious to explore what the effects of opening up data would be, in particular in terms of social interactions on the platform and the nature of the referral traffic to both Europeana and partners.

3. Danish Museums on Twitter
Includes link to demo and video.
Direct to Full Text Case Study (9 pages; PDF)

For museums to be relevant to new generations of digital-born users, we should want nothing more than to have our images be among those you can actually use. Statens Museum for Kunst, the national gallery of Denmark, has initiated a collaborative pilot project between, so far, 11 Danish art museums. The big idea is to build a mobile tool for art interpretation and engagement that is shared by many museum partners who all sign up to three common principles:
1. All Public Domain content is freely shareable and re-usable
2. We utilise an existing platform instead of custom-building a new one
3. Target users take part in developing and creating the experience
The mobile project wants to explore the potential of using mobile devices as in-gallery tools that invite users to look more closely at the artworks and engage with museums and each other around art. Furthermore, it aims to encourage Danish museums to start adopting open licences for their digitised collections. If we allow the public free and unencumbered possibilities to re-use and remix the images, our digitised art collections become useful and relevant in new ways.

Hat Tip and Thanks: epsi Platform

Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries