IIIF & Europeana Working Group

The Task Force 'Preparing Europeana for IIIF involvement' identified potential actions around the emerging IIIF technology on the part of Europeana content providers. It proposed identified 13 recommendations to follow up on, the first of which was to establish a dedicated working group to focus on IIIF adoption, training, and translation of resources with and within the Europeana Network.

Participants

This Working Group is a response to a call made during the Europeana Aggregators’ Forum, Autumn 2019, where aggregators expressed a great interest in training materials and tools around the framework. After an open call on the Aggregators’ Forum Basecamp, the following members expressed their interest in joining the Working Group, which is supported by the EuropeanaTech Community’s Steering Group.The original Task Force members have been consulted to gauge their interest in following up on their commendable work.

The working group has a loose membership structure. We will send around an open call for participation to the EuropeanaTech mailing list and the Aggregator Forum’s Basecamp. After a first working group meeting, we will establish the set of activities and a monthly meeting schedule. Mirrorring the way IIIF Community activities are set up, the monthly calls will take place on a fixed day at a fixed time, via the IIIF Zoom account. At least one of the chairs will be consistently attending.

By joining this Working Group, you will learn the ins and outs of using IIIF at your home institution and also on Europeana. It's a first-hand opportunity to connect with other institutions across Europe and the world using IIIF, and learn from one another- share best-practices and valuable use-cases. We are using Slack as our communication tool, and if you would like to stay informed about this Working Group, please join us on Slack by signing up. 

Proposed Activities

1. Creating standardised training workshops materials for content partner usage as well as Train the Trainer activities
2. Share examples of IIIF implementations
3. Translate existing IIIF training materials
4. Develop a communication strategy on IIIF usage for the Europeana Network

Activities at Europeana Aggregators' Forum meeting, autumn 2021

Two years after the IIIF Working Group was put in place, it reviewed the progress made with IIIF in the Europeana Aggregators' Forum (EAF). During a dedicated session at the autumn 2021 EAF meeting, a number of aggregators shared what they had achieved and how they had progressed with implementing IIIF. This is in line with the proposed activities of the group to share examples of IIIF implementations.

Seven aggregators shared their experiences with IIIF and gave a insights into what is possible with IIIF and how it can be implemented. We also heard from experts of the IIIF community about new developments. In addition to sharing examples we developed a better understanding of additional training activities and training material needed for aggregators to work with IIIF. This will set the agenda of the IIIF Working Group for 2022. 

Watch a recording of the meeting below (time stamps are provided for the different sections).