Aggregators play the important role of supporting cultural institutions and providing wider access to authentic, trustworthy and robust data and content.
The Digital Repository of Ireland is now an accredited aggregator for Europeana. Aggregators play the important role of working with thousands of cultural institutions and collectors to gather authentic, trustworthy and robust data, share it on Europeana Collections, and open it up to wider audiences. The accreditation scheme identifies active aggregators and acknowledges their role as active and trusted partners for cultural heritage institutions to work with. It also invites other aggregators to share knowledge and best practices with them.
DRI’s Dáire Rooney and Kathryn Cassidy were at the Europeana Aggregator Forum in Stockholm on 14th and 15th October to celebrate this announcement. Since January 2019, DRI has been the Irish partner in Europeana’s Common Culture Project, which aims to update 4 million records currently on Europeana, and to add 1.9 million new records to the platform. As part of the project, DRI has been working to establish an Irish national aggregation service, which will allow Irish cultural and social collections to be made available on Europeana for the first time since 2016.
Kathryn commented on the significance of DRI's new status:
We're very excited to become an accredited aggregator for Europeana. This gives DRI the opportunity to offer aggregation services to Irish Cultural Heritage Institutions who want to see their materials showcased in a European context. The accreditation process shows that we have met the requirements to become a Europeana aggregator and gives Irish organisations confidence in the service that we provide.
Now that the DRI has become an accredited aggregator, we will begin to work with our members to prepare their collections for aggregation to Europeana. Watch this space!
Image: Europeana Aggregator Forum. Photo credit: Henning Scholz.
