Introduction

This chapter presents a user perspective on implementing the BVI Model through a case study provided by the Europeana Foundation.

The questions focused on in this case study are:

• • a reflection on Europeana's implementation of impact assessment with a focus on one complete cycle;

• • the ideas driving how Europeana developed the Impact Playbook;

• • how these integrate with the BVI Model.

The Europeana Foundation: history and context

The Europeana Foundation is the organisation tasked by the EC with developing a digital cultural heritage platform for Europe. They state their mission as:

Europeana has its origin in libraries (Kenny, 2017). With funding from the EC, the European Library was developed and eventually launched in 2005 as a search engine and open data hub for library collections. This expanded over the following years, but 2005 also saw a call from several heads of state, supported by 19 national libraries, for increased investment from the European Union. By 30 September 2005 the EC adopted the i2010: Digital Libraries strategy, which outlined the vision for the digital libraries initiative.

Europeana was born as a key deliverable of the initiative, and the Europeana prototype went live on 20 November 2008. It was open and inclusive, such that museums, university collections and archives contributed alongside libraries. Europeana created a common point of access to Europe’s cultural heritage, with 4.5 million digital objects available on its launch date. It took until the summer of 2010 for this prototype to transition into a fully operational service.

One of Europeana's key innovations was to release all Europeana metadata as a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication in September 2012. This was a very significant strategic move, not just in establishing the principles by which Europeana operates but in guiding and supporting Europeana Network Association members to institute change and thus making the metadata freely available for any use that demonstrably boosts creativity and digital innovation. The move to CC0 also encouraged the making available of much other content under similar provisions. At the time of writing, there are over 13 million open access digital objects in Europeana.