CARARE - D:4.7 Map enhancement to project website using the Europeana API (Final)

Executive summary

Geographic location is one of the most important attributes of every cultural heritage item. It can describe provenience, the current institution, the location of the event or other related events. The most valuable geographic description is in the form of digital geographic coordinates. Geographic coordinates presented as x, y and possibly z-values define a position in a coordinate system. The added value of the geocoded cultural content is in the browsing of cultural portals efficiently through space and time, searching for content in a more user friendly way, without the necessity of typing geographical names, making it possible to discover overlapping cultural content at the same location but originating from different sources and at different times, mapping the cultural content, performing GIS calculations and simulations, overlapping architectural/archaeological heritage with museum objects and intangible heritage, defining the protected areas of monuments, geovisualisation and historical simulations.

This deliverable D 4.7 “Map enhancement to project website using Europeana API” describes the web application CARARE-mapping http://carare.eculturelab.eu. The objective of the CARARE-mapping web application is to demonstrate the functionalities and advantages for displaying and browsing digital cultural content if a user interface is a map. The CARARE-mapping web application proves the mapping as an added value for re-use of Europeana cultural content.

The CARARE-mapping web application is in a prototype phase and consists of four main components:

• mapping,
• route planning,
• mobile,
• search.

The pilot data will consist of all CARARE data ingested to Europeana, either with “exact” geographical coordinates or geoparsed ones. CARARE data was still in the process of being published in Europeana at the time of writing this report. 1,488,988 digital objects are displayed on the map.

This report complements the Report D 3.5 Report on Europeana GIS services and archaeology/architecture site data, December 2011.