Europeana Network Update
In this post, guest blogger Nick Poole, Chair of the Europeana Network, shares the latest Network news.
The Europeana Network is a community of nearly 500 members, representing the cultural and creative industries across Europe. The role of the Network is to act as a critical friend to Europeana, helping to ensure that the voice of the community is heard in Europeana’s strategic development.
As the Network enters a new phase in its development, the Network Officers thought it would be useful to send you this brief update and to invite you to participate in the work ahead of us in 2013.
Europeana Network Officers Election
After a successful election (many thanks to all those of you that voted!), we are delighted to confirm that the following people have been elected as your Europeana Network Officers (individual affiliations/representation is shown in parentheses):
• Nick Poole, Collections Trust (Cross Domain Aggregator) - Chair
• Anne Bergman Tahon, FEP (Publishers)
• Johan Oomen, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Audiovisual)
• Bengt Wittgren, Murberget Länsmuseet Västernorrland (Museum)
• Gunnar Urtegaard, Kulturrad (Archives)
• Louise Edwards, the European Library (Library)
I am sure that you will join me in offering your congratulations to our newly-elected officers. I would also like to offer our thanks on behalf of the entire Network to Henning Scholz and Hans van der Linden who have worked tirelessly in their former capacity as Officers.
Europeana Business Plan
As discussed at the last plenary meeting in Leuven, a key role for the Europeana Network is to ensure that the views of the community are reflected in the development of the Europeana Business Plan. We have been working with the Europeana Office to set out the schedule for discussion of the Business Plan, which is shown in the diagram below:
You will see that there are three key opportunities to reflect on and contribute to the draft Business Plan:
1. At the Business Plan Workshops, which will take place on 25-28 September
2. Through the Network Officers at their pre-meeting on 23 October and
3. In advance of the AGM in Berlin on 27 November (don’t forget to register).
The drafts will be made openly available for comment, and I encourage all of you to contribute to the development of the Business Plan – either directly to the Europeana Office or via the Network Officers as your representatives.
Task Forces
Four Task Forces are established and will be presenting an update on their work at the AGM in November. If you would like to set up a Europeana Network Proposed Task Force, please fill in this form indicating the subject or area of investigation, the participants and what the finished work will be. The completed proposal form can be sent to partnernetwork@europeana.eu. The proposal will be considered by the Officers at their monthly meetings.
European Cultural Commons
You will be aware that at the Leuven plenary I made a commitment to exploring the idea of a Cultural Commons for Europe as a key strand of the Europeana Network. These discussions will continue at a Strategic Briefing event in Cyprus at the end of October. We aim to put forward a firm recommendation for the development of the Cultural Commons for Europe by late November to be incorporated into the Europeana Business Plan.
Europeana Network on Europeana Professional
Don’t forget that you can find out all about the work of the Network from Europeana Professional, including key documents and schedules of forthcoming meetings. Find out more.