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Reusing open cultural heritage data

Open cultural heritage means content or data available in digital format free of charge and openly licensed to use, share or modify. Cultural heritage content can include but are not limited to digital reproductions of visual art, images, audio, video or textual documents. Museums, archives and libraries collections are increasingly available in high quality digital versions through image databases.
Kolme henkilöä tutkii lattialle pinottuja piirustuksia Taideteollisessa korkeakoulussa 1960-luvulla.. Kuva: Aalto-yliopiston arkisto.
Student works at the University of Industrial Arts in 1960's. Photo: Aalto University Archive.

How to find open cultural data?

Digital cultural heritage included in image databases are not reached by search engines. With just a few of the largest aggregated digital cultural heritage services you can reach millions of digitised works from around the world. A comprehensive list can be found in the Visual Resources Centre online guide.

Visual Resources Centre: Visual resources

Examples

Digital databases for cultural heritage data

How to use open cultural data? Recommendations:

  • Make searches using keywords

  • Refine your search by license types, file sizes or by contributing organisation

  • See full descriptive metadata and license information

  • Download the digital file(s)

  • Cite the source correctly (see citation advice)

Contact

Any questions regarding finding, sharing or reusing common digital cultural heritage can be addressed to the Visual Resources Centre: [email protected]

Links to research data management instructions

Follow these links to navigate through research data management instructions.

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Research Data Management (RDM) and Open Science

Properly managed research data creates competitive edge and is an important part of a high-quality research process. Here you will find links to support, services and instructions for research data management.

Services
This service is provided by:

Research and Innovation Services

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