EDM (definitions)
This page presents the classes defined in EDM and the properties that may be associated with them.
EDM comprises two principal profiles:
External – the set of basic EDM classes and properties to be applied by data providers.
Internal – the profile of EDM as published by Europeana following the ingestion and processing of data.
These abbreviations are used throughout this specification to indicate the profile in which a given class or property is employed.
In addition, EDM includes specialised profiles developed for particular applications, which are available here.
Table of Contents
Datatypes
The datatype for properties used by EDM are represented in this page as follows:
Type | Description |
|---|---|
Literal | A string value with an optional language tag (i.e. represented in RDF/XML using the xml:lang attribute with an IETF BCP 47 language tag) |
Literal (Datatype) | A value that conforms to a particular data type (e.g. a floating point) |
Reference | A reference to another resource using a unique identifier for that resource (i.e. a URI). |
Reference (Class) | A reference to another resource of a specific class using a unique identifier for that resource (i.e. a URI). |
Core classes in EDM
edm:ProvidedCHO
Label | Provided Cultural Heritage Object |
|---|---|
Definition | Represents the cultural heritage objects that Europeana collects descriptions about. |
Usage | EDM enables the integration of data from multiple providers describing the same real-world resource, while maintaining explicit provenance for each data source. EDM extends the Object Re-use and Exchange (ORE) model by adopting its proxy mechanism, which allows distinct provider-specific descriptions to coexist without loss of attribution. In this architecture, |
Example | Mona Lisa, Winged Victory of Samothrace |
Profiles | External, Internal |
ore:Proxy (Provider and Europeana Proxies)
Label | Proxy |
|---|---|
Definition | “A Proxy represents an Aggregated Resource as it exists in a specific Aggregation.” (https://www.openarchives.org/ore/1.0/vocabulary#proxy) |
Usage | Proxies allow distinct provider-specific descriptions of cultural heritage objects to coexist without loss of attribution. This mechanism is particularly important because Europeana and aggregators may add their own assertions about a cultural heritage object, which must be clearly distinguished from the original statements supplied by the data provider (see Section 6.1 Introducing Proxies in the EDM Primer). In EDM Internal, the proxy containing assertions made by Europeana can be identified by the property
|
Profiles | Internal |
edm:WebResource
Label | Web Resource |
|---|---|
Definition | A digital representation of an Information Resource, such as media files and Web pages, available on the Web via a URL. |
Usage | The digital representation(s) of the cultural heritage object. There may be more than one edm:WebResource for each The properties listed in this section are used to described the digital representation, not the cultural heritage object itself. |
Example | A Web Resource containing a description of an image of the Mona Lisa painting. |
Profiles | External, Internal |
See also | Additional uses and properties for this class are defined in the following EDM profiles: Technical, Embed, 3D, IIIF. |
ore:Aggregation
Label | Aggregation |
|---|---|
Definition | “A set of related resources (Aggregated Resources), grouped together such that the set can be treated as a single resource.” (https://www.openarchives.org/ore/1.0/datamodel#Aggregation) |
Usage | This class aggregates all resources supplied by a single provider that relate to a given cultural heritage object. These resources collectively represent the object and may include thumbnails, other forms of abstractions, and descriptive metadata. Instances of |
Profiles | External, Internal |
edm:EuropeanaAggregation
Label | Europeana Aggregation |
|---|---|
Definition | The set of resources related to a single cultural heritage object that collectively represents that object in Europeana. Such set consists of: all descriptions about the object that Europeana collects from (possibly different) providers, including thumbnails and other forms of abstractions, as well as the description of the object Europeana builds. |
Usage | This class is used in Europeana to gather in a single conceptual unit all the information about a cultural heritage object, necessary for all operations on these objects. An instance of |
Profiles | Internal |
Classes for contextual resources
The contextual classes represent entities that bring additional information to the cultural heritage object. They comprise the classes edm:Agent, edm:Place, edm:TimeSpan and skos:Concept.
edm:Agent
Label | Agent |
|---|---|
Definition | This class comprises people, either individually or in groups, who have the potential to perform intentional actions for which they can be held responsible. |
Usage | Agents are identified by the data provider and named according to some vocabulary or local convention, and possibly normalised by Europeana at enrichment or at ingestion time. |
Example | Leonardo da Vinci, the British Museum, W3C |
Profiles | Internal, External |
edm:Place
Label | Place |
|---|---|
Definition | The extent in space, in particular on the surface of the earth, in the pure sense of physics: independent from temporal phenomena and matter. |
Usage | Places are identified by the data provider and named according to some vocabulary or local convention, and possibly normalised by Europeana at enrichment or at ingestion time. |
Example | The region of space occupied by Rome today; the region of space occupied by the United Kingdom today; the region of space occupied by the Republic of Crimea in 1945 |
Profiles | Internal, External |
edm:TimeSpan
Label | Time Span |
|---|---|
Definition | A period of time having a beginning, an end and a duration. |
Usage | Time spans are identified by the data provider and named, or encoded, according to some vocabulary or local convention. They may also be identified and normalised by Europeana at enrichment or at ingestion time. |
Example | 2001-12-31 01.01.01 – 02.02.02 1503 – 1506 (the time span of the creation of Mona Lisa) |
Profiles | Internal, External |
skos:Concept
Label | Concept |
|---|---|
Definition | A SKOS concept can be viewed as an idea or notion; a unit of thought. However, what constitutes a unit of thought is subjective, and this definition is meant to be suggestive, rather than restrictive. The notion of a SKOS concept is used to refer to specific ideas or meanings established within a knowledge organization system and describe their conceptual structure. |
Usage | Concepts are identified by the data provider and named according to some vocabulary or local convention. They may also be identified and normalised by Europeana at enrichment or at ingestion time. |
Example | See the SKOS primer for examples of identifying and describing SKOS concepts. |
Profiles | Internal, External |
Classes for auxiliary resources
In essence, auxiliary classes act as helpers, providing additional capabilities and context to the main elements within EDM, enhancing its overall expressiveness and functionality.
as:Delete
Label | Delete |
|---|---|
Definition | Indicates that the actor has deleted the object |
Usage | The EDM representation of record deletion information. |
Profiles | Internal |
cc:License
Label | License |
|---|---|
Definition | A set of requests/permissions to users of a Work, e.g. a copyright license, the public domain, information for distributors |
Usage | The creation of instances of the License class in the data will allow the addition of properties related to those particular licenses, such as the date any copyright restrictions may expire. |
Profiles | Internal, External |
dqv:QualityAnnotation
Label | Quality Annotation |
|---|---|
Definition | Represents quality annotations, including ratings, quality certificates or feedback that can be associated to datasets or distributions. |
Usage | Used to represent the level of data quality of the metadata, according Europeana Publishing Framework. |
Profiles | Internal |
edm:FullTextResource
This class is defined in Technical metadata in EDM (definitions).
edm:PersistentIdentifier
This class is defined in Persistent identifiers in EDM (definitions).
edm:PersistentIdentifierScheme
This class is defined in Persistent identifiers in EDM (definitions).
foaf:Organization
This class is defined in Organization profile for data providers and aggregators (definitions).
edm:Aggregator
This class is defined in Organization profile for data providers and aggregators (definitions).
svcs:Service
This class is defined in IIIF to EDM profile (definitions) and also used in Embeddable resources in EDM (definitions).
EDM controlled terms
Europeana material type
Properties using |
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|---|---|
Vocabulary/Terms |
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Europeana Publishing Framework metadata tier
Properties using |
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|---|---|
Vocabulary/Terms |
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Europeana Publishing Framework content tier
Properties using |
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|---|---|
Vocabulary/Terms |
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Europeana reason for deletion
Work on this vocabulary is in progress. It will be available soon.
Intended usage
This vocabulary is defined in 3D content in EDM (definitions) .
Relation to the physical reality
This vocabulary is defined in 3D content in EDM (definitions) .
Type of 3D model
This vocabulary is defined in 3D content in EDM (definitions) .