Cultural heritage metadata aggregation using web technologies: IIIF, Sitemaps and Schema.org

In the World Wide Web, a very large number of resources are made available through digital libraries. We (Europeana and data providers) report on case studies that tested the application of some of the most promising Web technologies, exploring several solutions based on the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) and Sitemaps. We also describe an analysis of the Schema.org vocabulary for application in the context of cultural heritage and metadata aggregation. The solutions were tested successfully and leveraged on existing technology and knowledge in cultural heritage, with low implementation barriers. The future challenges lie in choosing among the several possibilities and standardizing solution(s). Europeana will proceed with recommendations for its network and is actively working within the IIIF community to achieve this goal.