The Europeana Network unites all individuals who have a stake in Europeana (Europe's digital library, museum and archive) to ensure an effective dialogue between the data providers or other contributors, the Foundation and the Europeana office. The Europeana Pro blog recently featured an introduction to their circle of Network Officers, featuring the R&D department's manager Johan Oomen.
The Europeana Network elects six officers who contribute to the decision-making of the Europeana Foundation (the governing body of Europeana). Chair of the network is Nick Poole from the UK's Collections Trust. The other elected officers of the Europeana Network are Gunnar Urtegaard from Norway's Kulturrådet , Anne Bergman-Tahon from the Federation of European Publishers, Louise Edwards from The European Library, which is located in the nearby The Hague, Bengt Wittgren from Sweden's Murberget Länsmuseet Västernorrland and Johan Oomen.
Europeana Pro features a round of introductions to these network officers. Their ultimate post in January featured Johan's background, in which he introduces the work we're doing here at Sound & Vision. About his work at R&D, Johan explains: I feel very fortunate to be in a position that allows me to look at this challenge from different angles, and make strategic interventions hat drive this forward. For instance, we have agreed on strategic, long-term collaborations with computer science departments at three Dutch universities and we’re setting up a Lab environment to make it easy for researchers to execute evaluations.
On the topic of the visibility of Europeana in the audiovisual domain, he indicates:
I see Europeana as a main driver for innovation in our sector. The Network connects and supports galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) in their quest to provide the best possible access to their collections, initiating joint plans to connect heterogeneous, dispersed collections. The Network also supports a broad discussion on the relation between GLAMs and commercial entities, social networks, the adaptation of ‘open’ licences and user involvement, just to name a few topics. A lot of work still needs doing in terms of raising awareness of Europeana within the audiovisual domain, engaging in advocacy regarding the adoption of open licences, and also forging links between online repositories of content and the creative industries.
Read the entire interview at the Europeana Pro Blog to learn more about the importance of EUscreen for linking Europeana to the audiovisual domain, to hear all about Sound & Vision's R&D activities and to know just what is Johan's favourite Europeana item.
Title photo remixed from an image from the VARA / Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision