Europeana released 20 million records using CC0

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Europeana — Europe’e digital library, has released 20 million records into the public domain using the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. This release is the largest one-time dedication of cultural data to the public domain using CC0. 

The development of Europeana or European digital library is related with 2008. with the support and initiative of the European Commission.

Europeana gathers digital materials from different libraries, so in addition to books there we will find films, photographs, paintings, maps, newspapers and archival documents. As a multilingual site for unique access to digitized material in Europe's cultural institutions, includes the libraries and museums, archives and other cultural heritage content owners.

The Europeana dataset consists of descriptive information from a huge trove of digitized cultural and artistic works. So, per the Europeana Terms of Use, “all metadata (textual information on digitised cultural heritage) on the site are published without any restrictions on re-use.” 

The public domain data can be useful for cultural institutions, researchers, and developers. By removing all copyright restrictions from the data, Europeana helps to promote innovation and economic activity. 

Importantly, the change represents a valuable contribution to the European Commission’s agenda to drive growth through digital innovation. 

Online open data is a core resource which can fuel enterprise and create opportunities for millions of Europeans working in Europe’s cultural and creative industries. The sector represents 3.3% of EU GDP and is worth over €150 billion in exports.

Vice-President of the European Commision, Neelie Kroes, as states the creativecommons.org, commended the announcement of European digital library saying that open data is such a powerful idea, and Europeana is such a cultural asset, that only good things can result from the marriage of the two. 

People often speak about closing the digital divide and opening up culture to new audiences but very few can claim such a big contribution to those efforts as Europeana’s shift to creative commons.

The Creative Commons Affiliate teams in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, through partner organizations Institute for Information Law (IViR), Kennisland, and the Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg provided expert support to Europeana during this process. 

National and University Library in Zagreb submitted to Europeana two valuable collections: Croatian Archive Web with the selection of Croatian network publications as an example of contemporary Croatian heritage, as well as academic digital repository that incorporates cultural and scientific heritage with the oldest, but also the modern dissertations at the University of Zagreb.