The quest for better quality data has started!

Quality data is a key priority for our whole community. The issue was discussed during the last EuropeanaTech conference, and with the outcomes of the Europeana Publishing Framework and the recent Task Forces on metadata quality and enrichment, we have general recommendations for quality improvements. What is now missing is a developed plan for agreeing new standards based on these recommendations, and for how providers and aggregators can implement these standards.

Formally defined as a Europeana Network and EuropeanaTech Working Group, the Data Quality Committee is a standing committee that will work on the various different facets of the data quality challenge over time, with a particular focus on re-use and discovery of cultural heritage scenarios.

Diamond works: interior view (a) diamond cutters (b) elevations of faceted cut diamonds. Etching by Bénard after Lucotte. Image: The Wellcome Library, CC BY.

We believe it is crucial to tackle data quality issues at every level of the data exchange chain - from its creation to its publication. We have therefore gathered together experts from various backgrounds (for example metadata experts, software developers, search and retrieval experts) to help us address all the potential issues that can arise.

Work areas as well as specific tasks will be defined and prioritized as the Committee sees fits, and regularly reported on and submitted for approval by the community, notably the Europeana Aggregator Forum. Items such as mandatory elements for ingestion of EDM data, data checking and normalisation and data completeness have been already added to the Committee’s agenda. For more details, please see the Committee Mission Statement

We hope you will find this work as exciting as we do! We invite you to share your thoughts and comments with us on Twitter using the hashtag #EuropeanaDataQuality.