Tech: Europeana

Subject: Tech: Europeana
From: banjocircus
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 06:21 PM

Europeana looks like it could be a great resource for recordings and texts, but most of the things I've found seem to be behind a paywall. Has anybody had luck finding good English/Scottish/Irish traditional music resources available free on Europeana?

Thanks,

Jonathan

Subject: RE: Tech: Europeana
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 07:36 PM

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europeana#Financing

Which seems to be direct from the Europeana web site itself (something that seems to breach Wiki's own rules of sourcing, but never mind!)...

Europeana and the projects contributing content to Europeana.eu have been funded by the European Commission under eContentplus, the Information and Communications Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) and similar programmes. In order to participate in a wide range of projects, which are only funded by the Commission for 50-100% of the costs and do not include overheads, Europeana is also reliant for an element of its funding on Member States' ministries of culture and education.

Which is of no help in telling us if you as an end user have to PAY for anything....

Subject: RE: Tech: Europeana
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 06 Apr 11 - 10:10 PM

Just tried this, looking for "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (recent thread).
To get a search box you have to click on the Europeana logo (no indication in the text to that effect).
Result brings up a pathetic four choices (effectively two duplicated) between Andy M Stewart and Old Blind Dogs. Clicking one of those images brings you to a download page requiring payment. Low down on the right hand side of the page is a box "View in original context". Click on that and you get a free thirty-second sound sample.
Seems like a very complicated way of acheiving (so far) not very much.

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: Europeana
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:59 PM

Seems like a very complicated way of acheiving (so far) not very much.

Isn't that the way government funding (even if just partial) is supposed expected to work?

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Europeana
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 07 Apr 11 - 11:24 PM

Reluctantly I would have to agree. I used to be a civil servant and always felt we gave more than value for our money. This seems more like a hall of mirrors than a serious access facility.

There seems to be no way of finding out what collections might be available, or what areas might be covered by the millions of "artefacts" contributed so far. Maybe I picked the wrong topic? All my search came up with was a couple of commercial offerings. iTunes or YouTube would have produced many more results if that's what I was looking for.

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: Europeana
From: banjocircus
Date: 08 Apr 11 - 11:30 AM

Hopefully the interface be improved over time -- it certainly has the potential to be an excellent resource.