The scenario you choose will depend on your digital strategy as a cultural institution (what you want) and the type of data that you can provide to Europeana (what you give). You may also take into consideration the services that Europeana can deliver to you (what we do) and the results of these actions (what you get).

To manage data and deliver it in high quality to our audiences, we’ve developed two sets of tiers of participation in Europeana: one set focuses on digitised content, the other on its metadata. Below you’ll find a summary of these tiers and their benefits. Read on to discover more about the background and reasons behind this approach, and then look at each tier in more detail.

Content

1. The Europeana website as a search engine: ‘I want to search and browse collections online.’ 

Benefits:

• Audiences view the full digital object on your website, not on the Europeana website.

• You can expect referrals to your website.

2. The Europeana website as a showcase: ‘I want to be guided through collections online.’ 

Benefits as above plus:

• Audiences see good-quality versions of your collections on the Europeana website, without navigating to a different website. 

• Europeana can present your objects in a context that better guides users, for example in the Europeana Art or Europeana Music thematic website.

• You can expect greater exposure on the Europeana website.

3. The Europeana website as a distribution platform for non-commercial reuse: ‘I want to find, view and use collections in my own non-commercial projects.’ 

Benefits as above plus:

• Audiences see high-quality versions of your objects on the Europeana website, without navigating to a different website. 

• Europeana can incorporate your collections into existing projects and partnerships operating in sectors like education (e.g. Historiana) and research (e.g. CLARIN). To do this, the collection must be made available under a rights statement that allows some reuse.

• Your collections could be used in non-commercial websites, apps, and services.

4. The Europeana website as a free reuse platform: ‘I want to find, view and use collections in whatever way I choose.’ 

Benefits as above plus:

• Europeana can incorporate your collections into existing projects and partnerships operating in the creative industries (e.g. Memories Retold video game, Birdie memory app). Your data can also be used on open platforms such as Wikimedia, shared with the social media hashtag #OpenCollections and promoted in hackathons. To do this, the collection must be made available under a rights statement that allows free reuse.

• You can expect wide reach of your content, increased brand recognition and reputation, and greater exposure on and beyond the Europeana website. Your collections could be used in commercial and non-commercial websites, apps, services, and products.

Open

What you give and what you get for the four tiers of content quality

Metadata

A. The Europeana website as a basic search platform: ‘I want to find the specific object I’m looking for.’ 

Benefits:

• Audiences will be able to find a specific object when they know precisely how to search for it (e.g. using the correct title of a book, a painting, or a catalogue identifier). 

• Audiences can find your objects by filtering search results by the people, places, types or subjects associated with them. 

• You can expect referrals to your website.

B. The Europeana website as an exploration platform: ‘I want to browse and explore even if I’m not sure what I’m looking for.’ 

Benefits as above plus:

• Audiences will be able to find your objects by searching for a more general type, subject or place and also find objects that have more specific types, subjects and places (e.g. looking for 'painting' also finds objects indexed with 'watercolour').

• Collections can be presented in context, for example in Europeana Art or Europeana Music. 

• Europeana can improve the findability of objects (via a multilingual search) and present them in context on our ‘entity’ pages. These pages group and present all information about a specific place, organisation, subject, type or person.

• Collections receive greater exposure on and beyond the Europeana website. With richer information, it will become easier for audiences to illustrate their stories on their own platforms using content from the Europeana website.

C. The Europeana website as a knowledge platform: ‘I want to search and browse in a more precise way, by named authors, specific subjects or topics.’ 

Benefits as above plus:

• Because you’ve  provided contextual metadata, a rich network of linked knowledge opens up. Audiences will find your collections through the relationships between collections and entities. This is what we call inspiration-oriented search and creates a sense of serendipity.

• Collections can be reused in projects and in Europeana partnerships in sectors like education (e.g. Historiana), research (e.g. CLARIN), and the creative industries (e.g. Memories Retold video game, Birdie memory app). Rich, accurate and contextualised information can be used in classes, studies and applications. This will result in a wide reach, increased brand recognition and reputation, and greater exposure on and beyond the Europeana website.

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