The goal of this page is to give you the needed information about the Europeana Data Model so you can understand how to use Europeana’s API responses to fit your needs and use cases.
To organize and structure its data, Europeana has defined a data model named Europeana Data Model (EDM). A detailed description of EDM is beyond the scope of this documentation: the reader is referred to the extensive documentation at the EDM page. However, a basic understanding of EDM is necessary for using the API. The objective of this section is to provide this basic understanding.
What is a Record?
A record is a term occasionally used as a shorthand means of referring to the package of data about one Cultural Heritage Object (CHO), comprising the information which connects the metadata and the digital representations together and a number of contextual resources such as the agents, places, concepts and time pertaining to the CHO.
What is a Dataset?
The records in Europeana are grouped by datasets. A dataset for Europeana is an Information Package as defined by OAIS or a collection of data. A Europeana dataset can be about a certain topic, originate from a certain source or process and is aggregated by a certain custodian. (http://www.w3.org/TR/void/ ). In some cases, a Europeana dataset can be the representation of one existing collection held by an institution, while in other cases the correspondence between datasets and collections won’t be one-to-one. A dataset can be provided by:
a provider (i.e. the organisation providing datasets directly to Europeana).
a data provider (i.e. an organisation providing the dataset to an aggregator).
Note that a dataset can have multiple data providers. A data provider is an organisation that submits data to http://Europeana.eu . Data providers may submit data directly to Europeana but are more likely to use the services of a provider, which collects, formats and manages data from data providers before submitting data to http://Europeana.eu .
Uniquely identifying Records and Datasets
EDM makes use of Internationalized Resource Identifier (ie. IRI, an extension to Uniform Resource Identifiers scheme so that Unicode characters can be used) as identifiers for all the resources (units of information) that make up the metadata of a CHO, as well as, the CHO itself so that they can be unambiguously referenced.
For simplicity, many of the Europeana APIs use a field named Record ID as a shortened version made out of just the variable parts of the IRI:
/DATASET_ID/LOCAL_ID
The variables in both the IRI and Record ID have the following meaning:
Constant
Datatype
Description
Constant
Datatype
Description
DATASET_ID
Number
The identifier of the dataset containing the record. It is typically a 5 digit integer number made of an initial 3 digit number that identifies the provider and following 2 digit number that identifies the actual dataset for that provider.
LOCAL_ID
String
The local identifier of the record which uniquely identifies the record within that dataset. It is typically generated in a deterministic way from the identifier given by the provider.
Example: IRI identifier of the CHO with Record ID "/09102/_GNM_1234"
In the documentation we sometimes refer to namespace prefixes (eg. dc, skos, edm) as many RDF output formats make use of namespaces to abbreviate the identifiers (IRIs) of properties and classes, following Namespaces in XML 1.0. Here we list all the namespace prefixes and URIs that are used by the Europeana APIs.
This section introduces all the classes defined in EDM and the properties that can be used in association to such classes.
ore:Aggregation
An Aggregation object. The set of resources related to a single cultural heritage object that collectively represent that object in Europeana. Such set consists of: all descriptions about the object that Europeana collects from (possibly different) content providers, including thumbnails and other forms of abstractions, as well as of the description of the object Europeana builds. An aggregation is associated to the object that it is about, by the property edm:aggregatedCHO. Find more in the EDM Definition.
The URL of a web resource which is a digital representation of the CHO. This may be the source object itself in the case of a born digital cultural heritage object.
The name of the intermediate organization that selects, collates, or curates data from a Data Provider that is then aggregated by a Provider from which Europeana aggregates. The Intermediate Provider is distinct from both the Data Provider and the Provider in the data supply chain.
The URL of a representation of the CHO which will be used for generating previews for use in the Europeana portal. This may be the same URL as edm:isShownBy.
The rights statement that applies to the digital representation, as given (for example) in edm:object or edm:isShownAt/By, when these resources are not provided with their own edm:rights.
Indicates whether the record has been contributed by the user community. It is a mandatory property for objects that are user generated or user created that have been collected by crowdsourcing or project activity. The property is used to identify such content and can only take the value “true” (lower case).
edm:EuropeanaAggregation
An Europeana Aggregation object. The set of resources related to a single cultural heritage object that collectively represent that object in Europeana. Such set consists of: all descriptions about the object that Europeana collects from (possibly different) content providers, including thumbnails and other forms of abstractions, as well as of the description of the object Europeana builds.
This property relates a ORE aggregation about a CHO with a web resource providing a view of that CHO. Examples of view are: a thumbnail, a textual abstract and a table of contents.
The URL of Europeana HTML object page. It captures the relation between an aggregation representing a cultural heritage object and the Web resource representing that object on the provider’s web site.
Aggregations, by definition, aggregate resources. The ore:aggregates relationship expresses that the object resource is a member of the set of aggregated resources of the subject (the Aggregation). This relationship between the Aggregation and its Aggregated Resources is thus more specific than a simple part/whole relationship, as expressed by dcterms:hasPart for example.
edm:ProvidedCHO
Represents the Cultural Heritage Object that Europeana collects descriptions about. The metadata describing the object sent by the data provider is described within the Provider Proxy, see the EDM Primer for the differences between edm:ProvidedCHO and Proxies.
Links an individual to an individual. Such an owl:sameAs statement indicates that two URI references actually refer to the same thing: the individuals have the same "identity".
ore:Proxy (Provider and Europeana Proxies)
Europeana uses Proxies as place-holders for cultural heritage objects within aggregations (whether Europeana aggregations or not) to the end of making assertions (a specific view) about the corresponding cultural heritage objects while distinguishing the provenance of these assertions. This is particular important as Europeana can add metadata which can this way be distinguished from the original metadata sent by the Data Provider (See chapter 6.1 Introducing proxies in the EDM primer). The first is usually called Europeana Provider and is distinguished from the Provider Proxy through the edm:europeanaProxy property with the value "true".
Differences between a Provider's Proxy and Europeana Proxy:
a provider proxy has edm:type and a europeana proxy does not.
a europeana proxy has edm:year and a provider proxy does not.
The name or identifier of a related resource, generally used for other related CHOs. The recommended best practice is to identify the resource using a formal identification scheme.
Name of the rights holder of the CHO or more general rights information. (Note that the controlled edm:rights property relates to the digital objects and applies to the edm:WebResource and/or edm:Aggregation).
An alternative name for the resource. This can be any form of the title that is used as a substitute or an alternative to the formal title of the resource including abbreviations or translations of the title.
A related resource that is a version, edition, or adaptation of the described resource. Changes in version imply substantive changes in content rather than differences in format.
A related resource of which the described resource is a version, edition, or adaptation. Changes in version imply substantive changes in content rather than differences in format.
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity and interpretation. This may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
edm:hasMet relates a resource with the objects or phenomena that have happened to or have happened together with the resource under consideration. We can abstractly think of history and the present as a series of “meetings” between people and other things in space-time. Therefore we name this relationship as the things the object “has met” in the course of its existence. These meetings are events in the proper sense, in which other people and things participate in any role.
This property relates a resource with the concepts it belongs to in a suitable type system such as MIME or any thesaurus that captures categories of objects in a given field (e.g., the “Objects” facet in Getty’s Art and Architecture Thesaurus). It does not capture aboutness.
This property captures the use of some resource to add value to another resource. Such resources may be nested, such as performing a theater play text, and then recording the performance, or creating an artful edition of a collection of poems or just aggregating various poems in an anthology.
This property captures a narrower notion of derivation than edm:isSimilarTo, in the sense that it relates a resource to another one, obtained by reworking, reducing, expanding, parts or the whole contents of the former, and possibly adding some minor parts.
Relates two resources S and R that are ordered parts of the same resource A, and such that S comes immediately after R in the order created by their being parts of A.
The most general contextual property defined in EDM. Contextual properties have typically to do either with the things that have happened to or together with the object under consideration, or what the object refers to by its shape, form or features in a figural or encoded form.
The most generic derivation property, covering also the case of questionable derivation. Is Similar To asserts that parts of the contents of one resource exhibit common features with respect to ideas, shapes, structures, colors, words, plots, topics with the contents of the related resource.
This property captures the relation between the continuation of a resource and that resource. This applies to a story, a serial, a journal etc. No content of the successor resource is identical or has a similar form with that of the precursor. The similarity is only in the context, subjects and figures of a plot. Successors typically form part of a common whole – such as a trilogy, a journal, etc.
This property describes a relation between a physical thing and the information resource that is contained in it, visible at it or otherwise carried by it, if applicable.
The Europeana material type of the resource. All digital objects in Europeana have to be classified as one of the five Europeana material types using upper case letters: TEXT, IMAGE, SOUND, VIDEO or 3D. A broad classification of objects into five material types that users may find useful for filtering purposes: text, image, sound, video, 3D.
Proxy objects are used to represent a resource as it is aggregated in a particular aggregation. The ore:proxyFor relationship is used to link the proxy to the aggregated resource it is a proxy for. The subject of the relationship is a proxy object, and the object of the relationship is the aggregated resource.
Proxy objects must also link to the aggregation in which the resource being proxied is aggregated. The ore:proxyIn relationship is used for this purpose. The subject of the relationship is a proxy object, and the object of the relationship is the aggregation
The digital representation(s) of the cultural heritage object. There may be more than one edm:WebResource for each edm:ProvidedCHO, which will be linked via the ore:Aggregation using edm:hasView or one of its subproperties.
The properties listed in this section are used to described the digital representation, not the cultural heritage object itself. Some of the properties such as "edm:hasColorSpace", "edm:componentColor", "edm:spatialResolution", "edm:codecName" and the ones defined within the EBUCORE namespace, are extracted from the media resource by Europeana tools during data ingestion. For more information on these properties, see the EDM profile for technical metadata.
A related resource that references, cites, or otherwise points to the described resource. In IIIF, dcterms:isReferencedBy can be used to connect a edm:WebResource to a IIIF manifest URI.
Where one CHO has several web resources, shown by multiple instances of the edm:hasView property on the ore:Aggregation this property can be used to show the sequence of the objects. Each web resource (apart from the first in the sequence) should use this property to give the URI of the preceding resource in the sequence.
The value in this element will indicate the usage and access rights that apply to this digital representation. The rights statement specified at the level of the web resource will "override" the statement specified at the level of the aggregation. The value in this element is a URI taken from the set of those defined for use in Europeana. A list of these can be found at http://pro.europeana.eu/web/available-rights-statements
The identifier of the Service require to consume the WebResource.
SVCS Service
A Service is a web service associated with a Site or part of it. The Service class is used to flag a service requiring a specific protocol and profile to be consumed. A Service is important for IIIF Web Resources to flag their compliance and level of compliance to the IIIF specification. Find more in the IIIF to EDM Profile.
Classes for Contextual Resources
The contextual classes represent entities that bring additional information to the cultural heritage item. They comprise classes such as edm:Agent, edm:Place, edm:TimeSpan and skos:Concept.
edm:Agent
An EDM Agent class comprises people, either individually or in groups, who have the potential to perform intentional actions for which they can be held responsible.
edm:Place
The extent in space, in particular on the surface of the earth, in the pure sense of physics: independent from temporal phenomena and matter.
edm:TimeSpan
A period of time having a beginning, an end and a duration.
skos:Concept
A SKOS concept can be seen as an idea or notion; a unit of thought. All properties of this class are defined in SKOS.
cc:License
A set of requests/permissions to users of a Work, e.g. a copyright license, the public domain, information for distributors.
Datatypes
EDM inherits from RDF the following datatypes:
Datatype
Description
Datatype
Description
Literal
A string value with an optional ISO639 language tag (ie. represented in RDF/XML using the xml:lang attribute).
Reference
A reference to another resource (may be a contextual resource such as a person or place, a media object, or another object) using a unique identifier for that resource (i.e. URI).