Millions of open cultural heritage resources from Europeana now easily accessible through WorldCat

The following comes to us from OCLC (original here) and is reprinted with kind permission:

A partnership between OCLC and Europeana has now made millions of open cultural heritage resources easily accessible through WorldCat, the world's most comprehensive database of information about library collections.

Europeana works with thousands of European archives, libraries, museums and audio-visual collections to share cultural heritage for enjoyment, education and research, and to foster creativity and innovation.

The contribution of over 25 million openly licensed records from the Europeana website to WorldCat adds to the rapidly growing number of open content resources that are accessible through OCLC services.

“Making digital heritage content openly available to as many people as possible to help promote knowledge sharing, learning and creativity sits at the heart of what Europeana does," said Milena Popova, Programme and Business Development Manager at Europeana. “The impact of the pandemic has only served to highlight the need for and importance of access to digital cultural content across society, and Europeana’s partnership with OCLC means we can help make that access possible for even more people.”

Open content continues to be an important part of library collections as users increasingly expect immediate access to free, online resources.

“We’re excited to work with Europeana to advance our shared goal of making open content resources visible and accessible for all,” said Tim Martin, Director of Business Development and Publisher Relations at OCLC. “By making open content more discoverable and accessible through continually expanding our collections and user-friendly discovery services, we’re able to create a more inclusive and rich experience for our users.”

Users of WorldCat.org and WorldCat Discovery can use the Open Access filter to quickly and easily surface resources from Europeana and other open content providers.

About Europeana

Europeana is Europe’s platform for digital cultural heritage, empowering cultural heritage institutions to share their collections with the world. Through the Europeana website, millions of cultural heritage items from around 4,000 institutions across Europe are available online. We work to share and promote this heritage so that it can be used and enjoyed by people across the world. Our work contributes to an open, knowledgeable and creative society. The Europeana Foundation is the organisation tasked by the European Commission with developing a digital cultural heritage platform for Europe.