Europeana, the portal which provides links to cultural artifacts such as paintings, music, films and books from cultural institutions across Europe, has published a new strategic plan which sets out the direction for its development up to 2015. To remain successful, the plan says, Europeana must move to a more distributed model, collaborating with other content aggregators and making its content available in the places where users congregate online, such as social networks and educational sites.
The plan identifies major challenges ahead, including overcoming intellectual property barriers to digitization, speeding up digitization of the cultural and intellectual record, and securing long-term funding. Four strategic areas for development are identified: aggregating content, facilitating knowledge transfer and advocacy, distributing heritage to users wherever they are, and engaging users in new ways of participating in their cultural heritage. The plan forecasts ambitious content growth for the project, from 14 million objects in 2010 to 30 million objects in 2015.
Read Information Today's detailed coverage of the Europeana plan here.