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Hi Jeremy, As part of the National Museums Online Learning Project we are developing a federated search across the nine partner national museums. This will be implemented in both strands of the project being WebQuests (for school learners) and Creative Journeys (for lifelong learners). So you can understand that an API is very much core to this for us. We currently have a working prototype for this and I would be happy to discuss this further if you'd like to contact me directly. Regards, Terry Terry Makewell Technical Manager National Museums Online Learning Project Email: [log in to unmask] Tel: 020 7942 2819 >>> [log in to unmask] 05/02/2008 12:29 >>> Dear all, Some of you will know of the European Digital Library, an EC project that is currently in a prototyping phase (known as EDLnet http://www.europeandigitallibrary.eu/edlnet/). It is part of the wider Digital Libraries Initiative (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/wh at_is_dli/index_en.htm) and shortly after that I get lost in the maze of EC projects, initiatives, directorates etc. Anyway, its final form is up in the air, but essentially it is hoped that it will aggregate digital content from museums, libraries and archives across Europe. Quite what will be held, the technical architecture, how the content will be accessed and maintained and many other questions are working their way through the system, but one day it may offer a partial solution to cross-collection searching, at least for a subset of European-owned material. Apologies to those who know more about this subject, I'm almost certain I've misrepresented it! I got interested in the project when I attended a meeting late last year, at which the organisers were brainstorming user requirements and ideas for the interface. I went along with a particular axe to grind, which was the need for an API. The basic rationale was that EDL will have limited appeal for users if they have to go to a single portal site to search, whereas it would serve a lot more people if it was the engine behind many sites scattered around the web. For organisations that might contribute content to the central repository, too, it would be a far more attractive proposition if they knew that they could then access the data themselves, embed EDL functionality in their sites or mash it up with mediating content, maps etc. EDL could act as a sophisticated online collections database for a small museum that could never countenance building its own search engine, much as one can embed google site search into your own page at present. This would be good for EDL because it could be quite a strong motive for contributing content. Overall I think that an API could actually be much more useful than a "portal" website. So to the purpose of this e-mail. An upcoming EDL "users and usability" meeting, in March, will be looking more closely at the subject of APIs, and in preparation for this I was hoping to get some thoughts from the MCGers about: * whether and why an API would be useful to them, or influence their decision on whether to contribute content to EDL * what features might prove useful * any examples of APIs or of their application that they think provide a model for what EDL's API could offer or enable It would be nice to feel I could represent the thoughts of a good portion of the practitioners in the UK, or at least more than myself alone. Thanks in advance, Jeremy Jeremy Ottevanger Web Developer, Museum Systems Team Museum of London Group 46 Eagle Wharf Road London. N1 7ED Tel: 020 7410 2207 Fax: 020 7600 1058 Email: [log in to unmask] www.museumoflondon.org.uk Museum of London is changing; our lower galleries will be closed while they undergo a major new development. 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