EDM - Mapping guidelines

Owned by Adina Ciocoiu
Last updated: Jun 26, 2023
2 min read

The Europeana Data Model (EDM in short) is a theoretical data model that allows data to be presented in different ways according to the practices of the various domains which contribute data to Europeana. To create a practical implementation Europeana has not used all the classes and properties defined in the EDM model. In particular, the ore:Proxy class is not included because it is created within Europeana using data provided according to the Guidelines. Additionally, for its internal working Europeana utilises a different set of classes and properties. There are several case studies that address particular aspects of using EDM.

If needed, these guidelines can be read in conjunction with the full EDM Definition and the EDM Primer, which explain the principles of how EDM works. You can also refer to the Europeana Semantic Element Specification (ESE), which has the full description of the Dublin Core elements and the ESE elements reused in EDM. These documents are available via the EDM documentation page.

The guidelines presented here describe only the seven classes from the full model that are currently implemented: the three core classes representing the cultural heritage object and the four contextual classes that may be associated with it.

The core classes are:

Main contextual classes include:

Please note that the EDM_Mapping_Guidelines_v2.4_102017 version in .pdf is still available below. However, some sections in that version, are as of February 2023 outdated.

The EDM Mapping Guidelines have been updated and you can get the most recent version of this documentation via the following sections of the Europeana Knowledge Base.